## News Summary: "Steve" Review - Cillian Murphy Shines in Ferocious Reform School Drama **News Title/Type:** Film Review: "Steve" **Report Provider/Author:** The Guardian / Peter Bradshaw **Date/Time Period Covered:** The review was published on **September 6, 2025**, and discusses a film set in the **mid-90s**. **Relevant News Identifiers:** * **URL:** https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/05/steve-review-cillian-murphy-is-outstanding-in-ferocious-reform-school-drama * **Published At:** 2025-09-06 00:01:47 --- ### Critical Information: This news report is a review of the film "Steve," a drama starring and produced by Cillian Murphy, directed by Tim Mielants. The film is an adaptation of Max Porter's 2023 novella "Shy." **Main Findings and Conclusions:** * **Cillian Murphy's Performance:** Murphy delivers one of his "most uninhibited and demonstrative performances" as Steve, a stressed and troubled headteacher of a residential reform school for delinquent teenage boys. * **Film's Tone and Style:** The film is described as having "gonzo energy and the death-metal chaos of emotional pain, cut with slashes of bizarre black humour." * **Character Parallels:** The shift in title from the novella "Shy" to the film "Steve" is noted as an "interesting shift in emphasis," potentially creating a closer parallel between the teacher (Steve) and the pupil (Shy). * **Emotional Impact:** The film is "fiercely affecting" and "brutal but ultimately hopeful." * **Outstanding Cast:** The review highlights an "outstanding cast," with particular praise for Cillian Murphy and Jay Lycurgo (who plays Shy). **Key Statistics and Metrics:** * **Novella Publication Year:** 2023 (Max Porter's "Shy") **Important Recommendations:** * While not a direct recommendation for action, the review strongly suggests the film is a significant cinematic work due to the quality of the performances and direction. **Significant Trends or Changes:** * The film explores themes of "emotional pain," "substance abuse," "rejection," and the blurred lines between authority and friendship. * It depicts the challenges of managing a reform school environment characterized by "permanent bedlam of fights" and "brutally aggressive wit." **Notable Risks or Concerns:** * **School Closure:** A major plot point involves the school buildings being sold and the school being abolished by a "hospital trust" without consultation with staff, creating significant distress. * **Staff Concerns:** The staff are "wary and concerned" about Steve due to his "open secret" of drink and substance abuse problems. * **Steve's Outbursts:** Steve's struggles with his own issues lead to outbursts, such as threatening to "strangle" the trust chair, which is a "macabre imitation" of the behavior they are trying to curb in the boys. **Material Financial Data:** * No specific financial data is mentioned in the review. --- ### Detailed Interpretation: The review paints a vivid picture of a film that is both intense and emotionally resonant. The setting of a reform school in the mid-90s provides a backdrop for exploring the complex psychological states of both the troubled teenagers and their equally troubled headteacher, Steve. **Cillian Murphy's Role as Steve:** Steve is portrayed as a deeply flawed but "passionately committed" leader. His secret struggle with alcohol and substance abuse, coupled with the immense pressure of managing a difficult group of boys and the impending closure of the school, makes him a central figure of pathos. The review suggests he has become so immersed in the struggles of his pupils that he has, in a sense, become "the most difficult resident of all." **The Boys and "Shy":** The teenage boys are depicted as a force of nature, engaging in "permanent rap battle, but without the rap and with actual violence." Shy, the "quietest and smartest" among them, is a key character. The title change from the novella to the film is interpreted as a deliberate choice to highlight the connection and potential mirroring between Steve and Shy. **The Impact of External Forces:** The arrival of a local TV news crew and a local MP on the same day that Steve receives the devastating news of the school's closure amplifies the crisis. This convergence of events creates a dramatic and chaotic atmosphere. The news crew's interviews, particularly Steve's opening contribution, are described as deeply "traumatised," leading the reviewer to initially mistake it for a police or documentary interview. **Themes of Pain and Rejection:** The film delves into the "pain of rejection," affecting both Shy (from his mother and stepfather) and Steve (from the trust that is closing his school). This shared experience of being cast aside is a central theme. **Moments of Hope and Redemption:** Despite the overwhelming chaos and pain, the film offers a "sequence of hope and even redemption" towards the end. This moment, accompanied by Steve's emotional voiceover, is described as "sympathetic" but perhaps softens the film's overall ferocity. **Overall Impression:** The review concludes that "Steve" is a "ferocious" and "fiercely affecting" drama, driven by Cillian Murphy's outstanding performance and the strong ensemble cast. The film's blend of "gonzo energy" and "bizarre black humour" suggests a unique and impactful cinematic experience.
Steve review – Cillian Murphy is outstanding in ferocious reform school drama
Read original at The Guardian →Producer-star Cillian Murphy and director Tim Mielants last collaborated on a superlative adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, and their new project together could hardly be more different: a drama suffused with gonzo energy and the death-metal chaos of emotional pain, cut with slashes of bizarre black humour.
Max Porter has adapted his own 2023 novella Shy for the screen and Murphy himself gives one of his most uninhibited and demonstrative performances.Murphy is Steve, a stressed, troubled but passionately committed headteacher with a secret alcohol and substance abuse problem, in charge of a residential reform school for delinquent teenage boys some time in the mid-90s.
With his staff – deputy (Tracey Ullman), therapist-counsellor (Emily Watson) and a new teacher (Little Simz) – he has to somehow keep order in the permanent bedlam of fights and maybe even teach them something.The boys themselves are an intimidating mix of energy and brutally aggressive wit, engaged in a permanent rap battle, but without the rap and with actual violence.
The quietest and smartest is Shy (Jay Lycurgo), and the change of title from book to film is an interesting shift in emphasis, or conceivably a more pointed way of bringing teacher and pupil into closer parallel.On one terrible day, a local TV news crew arrives to film a social-interest segment about the school, coinciding with a visit from the pompous local MP (Roger Allam); they set up the cameras just after Steve receives news from the hospital trust that the school buildings are to be sold and the school itself abolished without any consultation with staff.
In parallel with this calamity, Shy gets a call from his mother and stepfather, saying that they wish to have nothing more to do with him.The pain of rejection goes from top to bottom. And the film shows the awful pathos of Steve’s position. Over a long career of having to be patient with truculent boys, having to be tolerant, having to joke around, not coming down too hard, walking the line between friendship and authority, he has effectively joined them; Steve has become the most difficult resident of all.
The staff themselves, however affectionate and genuinely respectful of all that he has achieved, are wary and concerned about him as they would be with one of the boys. His drink and substance abuse problems are an open secret. And when the trust chair tells him that the school is finished, Steve erupts with rage and threatens to strangle him – a macabre imitation of just the kind of outburst that they are trying to get the boys to move away from.
The news crew have, meanwhile, set up on-camera interviews with everyone at the school and Steve’s contribution, which begins the film, is so traumatised, and so clearly an interview with someone deeply upset, that you might think at first that this is a psychoanalyst or police procedural interview, or maybe a true-crime documentary.
As for the boys themselves, they seem cheerfully energised by any hint of celebrity. On being asked what advice he would give his six-years younger self, one says: “Always carry a blade.”Shy finally gives us a sequence of hope and even redemption, a moment where the amp is turned down from 11, with an emotional voiceover from Steve himself about the boys; it is a really sympathetic moment, although it perhaps softens the blow and dilutes the ferocity a bit.
Murphy and Lycurgo lead an outstanding cast.
