Cillian Murphy’s ‘urgent’ new Netflix film Steve grabbed me by the throat

Steve is set in a reform school for boys on their last chance in the 1990s (Picture: Robert Viglasky/Netflix)

Steve is a smaller than usual – but no-less-worthy – awards season contender from Netflix, and a film made with enough urgency and dedication that I’m still thinking about it after several days.

It will take viewers back to their own school days in the most evocative and eye-opening of ways, to reconsider the challenges faced by teachers working even in the mainstream British education system.

Perfectly formed as an expansion of novella Shy by its original author Max Porter, the film shifts its focus out of the head of one teenage boy to present a class full of them, all on their final chance at reform school Stanton Wood, as well as the skeleton teaching staff trying to help them.

Cillian Murphy is the titular Steve, a committed headteacher being pushed to the edge by both his personal and professional lives; after mere seconds on screen, he’s already berating himself ‘as a 48-year-old adult man’ in a frustrated pep talk while driving to work.

Structured around a local broadcaster’s visit to film a piece about the school and its methods, Steve gets under the skin of the accusation that Stanton Wood is merely ‘a very expensive dumping ground for society’s waste product’. 

This documentary also provides great entertainment and distraction for the lads as they partake in on-camera interviews while Steve tries to protect them from sharing any incriminating information.

It focuses on the titular headmaster played by Cillian Murphy, with the book’s protagonist Shy (Jay Lycurgo) part of the ensemble (Picture: Robert Viglasky/Netflix)

The energy given off by the ensemble of boys is electric, boisterous and sometimes even dangerous; they’re both funny and capable of breaking your heart. The latter goes especially for Jay Lycurgo’s performance as Shy, the boy whose head we get inside in the book.

Lycurgo is beautifully sincere as a teenager struggling with feeling all ‘barbed wire and slippy’, masking a deep pain compounded by his mum telling him on the phone that their relationship is ‘over’ – like she can dump her own son. It’s never performative and I can think of no greater compliment than recognising how real it feels.

Your heart goes out to him and all the other pupils, even persistent troublemaker Jamie (Luke Ayres), who Steve has to remind that he ‘can’t casually call me a d**k and a p**f’. Most have committed serious harm, but the film focuses on their potential and not their past, so we don’t learn many specifics – more that Steve sees each one as bright and capable in different ways, even if they couldn’t thrive elsewhere.

Oscar winner Murphy is excellent as always as a man at breaking point (Picture: Robert Viglasky/Netflix) The chaotic film, which also features Little Simz (pictured, C), simmers with energy (Picture: Robert Viglasky/Netflix)

Tracey Ullman is another brilliantly committed teacher, Amanda, and Steve’s no-nonsense deputy and right-hand woman. ‘We’re in the process of saving their lives,’ she insists to the TV crew while keeping a beady eye on Murphy’s Steve as he tries to stay afloat. Simbi Ajikawo (better known to some as rapper Little Simz) also makes an impression as passionate but inexperienced young teacher Shola. 

The momentum of the movie is constant – there’s never enough time, whether that’s to reluctantly host an MP (a painfully effective Roger Allam), digest distressing news over the school’s future or properly brief Shola. But Steve, who’s often needed in three places at once, still ‘gets’ the boys. He tells therapist Jenny (Emily Watson) that he knows Shy has ‘backed out of the room’ in terms of his progress.

The chaos is so vivid, in lessons and a lunchtime brawl alike, as is the 1996 setting with Walkmans and football fever, and no texting or social media. You’re plunged into the thick of it as the camera follows the characters around on one hectic day.

Sharp humour also provides some surprising laughs alongside flashes of trauma and deeper moments.

Steve will make you nostalgic for your own favourite teachers (pictured: Tracey Ullman with Murphy) (Picture: Robert Viglasky/Netflix)

There isn’t a weak link in Steve, from writing and acting to its tight execution by director Tim Mielants, who has drawn another faultless performance from Oppenheimer Oscar winner Murphy following Small Things Like These. And while the storyline might follow familiar beats, the atmosphere is arrestingly authentic.

Steve also leaves you extra-grateful for any inspirational teachers from your past – you’ll be offering out belated thanks again for the grace of their good will, as well as fired up to fix a struggling system.

Steve is out in select UK cinemas on Friday, September 19. It streams exclusively on Netflix from October 3.

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