Film Review — Steve (2025). Cillian Murphy and Tim Mielants Deliver…

There’s very few actors that can command attention in the first 5 minutes of a film. Cilian Murphy is one of them.

It’s also brave, considering where he is in his career right now. After the Oppenheimer whirlwind with all the awards, acclaim and inevitable prestigious film offers, he’s chosen to go in the opposite direction, focusing on smaller, more impactful projects.

Steve marks his second collaboration with director Tim Mielants, following Small Things Like These in 2024. I haven’t seen that one yet, but it’s on the list. Mielants himself started out in television before moving into film, and his earlier project Patrick was a wild, offbeat story about a handyman in a nudist campsite who loses his hammer. #thataintnojoke.

This film, however, is much more grounded. It’s based on the 2023 novel Shy by Max Porter, who also wrote the screenplay. The story takes place at Stanton Wood, a fictional school for troubled boys, the kind of last-chance institution that takes in those rejected by everyone else. These are kids on the edge, violent, impulsive and deeply damaged. The teachers who work there, including Steve, are equally remarkable, those rare people with the patience and compassion to try and help these boys find some form of balance.

The film unfolds over a single day at Stanton Wood, during this time we witness the chaos of the environment: the daily battles with the boys, the bureaucratic strain of keeping the school afloat and a looming PR disaster when a local news crew arrives to do an expose on how efficient the school is, considering it costs the taxpayer some £30k per student per year.

It’s a simple setting, but beneath that simplicity lies enormous emotional depth. These children are the products of a broken system, victims of neglect, violence and abandonment and the film doesn’t shy away from that harsh reality. What’s even more striking is that Steve and the teachers around him aren’t portrayed as flawless saviours; they’re human and exhausted and just as vulnerable to the system’s failures.

Steve himself is a reflection of the chaos he’s surrounded by. Haunted by his own past trauma, his work feels like an act of redemption, but the weight of it all has driven him toward addiction and self-destruction. Cillian Murphy captures this perfectly. His Steve isn’t a hero; he’s a man trying to hold himself together while holding everyone else up.

The film draws a powerful parallel between Steve and one of his students, Shy. Both are trying to navigate pain and anger, both losing their grip in their own ways. The result is a story that feels raw and human, filled with quiet heartbreak and some dark humour.

Steve is a beautifully made film. It’s intimate, moving, and sharply observed. Mielants directs with restraint, letting the characters breathe while keeping the tension simmering beneath the surface. The cinematography is clean and unpretentious, perfectly framing the chaos within.

Is it worth the ticket price? Absolutely. Though, in this case, it’s an easier yes, the film is available to stream on Netflix.