Belgian director Tim Mielants makes his Toronto debut with Steve, reuniting with Cillian Murphy after the acclaim of Small Things Like These and this time adapting Max Porter’s novella Shy. The book was a fragmented, music-driven story set in the mind of a troubled teenager at a reform school in the mid-1990s. The film, retitled Steve, takes a wider view, focusing on Murphy’s headteacher and his effort to keep the school from falling apart. On paper, showing not only that the boys are failing but also that the adults collapse under the same pressures could have been a new angle that fits with Mielants’ interest in institutions that fail the vulnerable. In practice, it becomes a diluted, chaotic mess.
Instead of the quiet and restrained tone of his last film, Mielants goes loud and restless here, closer to Danny Boyle at his most frenetic, trying to capture both the chaos of the school and the minds of those inside. The camera never stops, the editing cuts without pause, the music blasts over everything. That might have worked if the movie had stayed committed to this approach, but it contrasts with different styles. There are occasional glimpses of the subdued tone of Small Things Like These. Documentary-like stretches with interviews from students and staff, then jumps into pure melodrama with scenes like a phone call between Shy and his mother, and the pivotal moment with the rock throwing. The constant clash of styles makes the film hard to connect with.
What kept me interested were the boys, the rawness of their presence, the way they carried themselves on screen, all captured with a sense of authenticity that makes it feel like they should have been the focus of the story. Yet the film insists on giving greater weight to the teachers, paralleling their exhaustion and inner suffering with the students’ struggles. It is a more novel idea that becomes confusing, repetitive in execution, and even a little misguided, suggesting that kids and staff are interchangeable victims of the same system. That oversimplifies what the book captured with sharper edges about the deep wounds of a teenager marked by violence, neglect, and shame. The job of the staff is tough, and there are some interesting observations on what drives them to dedicate their whole being to this cause. Still, it becomes hard to accept a comparison between the stress of a school closure and the frustrations of receiving a badly communicated message with the inner struggles of someone abandoned by family with nowhere else to go. Such points would have worked better had they been a secondary exploration given less time, which would have strengthened the parallels without suggesting they carry the same weight.
The tonal confusion also hurts the performances, especially Murphy, who delivers what might be his first bad performance. To his credit, he is clearly and constantly trying, but that same visible effort keeps him from disappearing into the role, which the story’s more natural style required. His weakest moments come in one-on-one scenes with students, where he gives motivational pep talks about being better than their actions suggest. In those exchanges, you can see Murphy struggle to match the boys’ authenticity, shaping a character that feels closer to a less inspiring version of Dead Poets Society. Tracey Ullman and Emily Watson handle the tone with more ease, while the film’s strongest turn comes from Jay Lycurgo, who, even when given the most melodramatic material, bridges the gap between his character’s despair and the naturalistic presence of the other students. In the end, Steve feels like a blur of good intentions lost in noise. There are individual moments and ideas that hit with power, but instead of drawing us into the struggles of the students and staff, it keeps us at a distance.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future. Still courtesy of TIFF.
Still courtesy of Netflix
- 1Sentimental Value
- 2Hamnet
- 3One Battle After Another
- 4Ne Zha 2
- 5Blue Moon
- 221Steve#221 of 256
- Where to watch
Netflix- Where to watch
- Netflix
Play trailer
- Original title
- Steve
- Director
- Tim Mielants
- Genre
- Drama
- Cast
- Cillian Murphy, Tracey Ullman, Jay Lycurgo, Little Simz, Douggie McMeekin, Youssef Kerkour, Roger Allam, Emily Watson
- Rated
- R
- Screenwriter
- Max Porter
- Composer
- Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow
- Cinematography
- Robrecht Heyvaert
- Editor
- Danielle Palmer
- Country
- Language
- English
- Distributor (CA)
- Netflix