My Review of Steve (2025)

 

Written by Max Porter

Directed by Tim Mielants

Kamila: "If 1996 Shy could say anything to 1990 Shy, what would he say?"

Yesterday I picked a movie at random to watch and I stumbled on this rather tense affair. Anything with Cillian Murphy being stressed as fuck, character wise has to be a winner, right?

With this movie, he played the role of a caring headteacher named Steve. Steve worked in a school that tried to educate the type of boys that society had mostly written off. He genuinely cared about each and every one of them, in particular a lad named Shy (Jay Lycurgo).

Steve's relationship with Shy got tested throughout the movie as the latter openly challenged Steve's motives for caring so much. Shy also wasn't shy in flouting authority. He even went as far as to publicly berate Sir Hugh Montague Powell (Roger Allam) just because he could.

In fact, it's Shy's spirit that Steve seemed to admire the most as he talked about some of the other lads including Jamie (Luke Ayres), Riley (Joshua J. Parker), Tarone (Tut Nyuot) and Nabz (Ahmed Ismail) to name but a few. While Shy had the most screen time out of the lads, the others do get some scenes as well.

The main crux of the movie however did seem to be about the school that Steve was a headteacher being filmed by a crew over the course. There's also the threat of closure from the school, something which even Amanda (Tracey Ullman) was powerless to stop.

On top of that, there's a little insight into Steve's life outside the school. He's married and had two daughters. He was involved in a car crash and still had the lingering scars and guilt from that experience. The movie had him spiral a bit too while also wanting to fight to keep the school open. Steve really went through it as a character.

- The movie's based on Max Porter's 2023 novella, Shy. Cillian Murphy appeared in a stage production of Porter's other work, Grief Is The Thing With Feathers.

- Cillian Murphy has previously worked with director Tim Mielants on Small Things Like These. He'll appear next with Jay Lycurgo in The Immortal Man.

- Standout music: Kruder and Dorfmeister's Deep Shit Parts 1 and 2.

- Chronology: Set during 1996 in an English school.

Steve (2025) really worked as an exploration into a school on it's last legs. There's great performances from both Cillian Murphy and Jay Lycurgo. I really liked this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10