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✦ ✦ ✦
Steve runs a school for troubled boys. He is also, quietly, a troubled man — and Cillian Murphy plays both truths at once. Adapted by Max Porter from his own 2023 novella and directed by Tim Mielants, Steve is a compact, quietly devastating film about a headteacher holding together a school for boys with behavioral difficulties while battling his own unraveling interior life. Murphy — who produced the film through his own company — gives a performance of extraordinary restraint, the kind that communicates volumes without announcing itself. Jay Lycurgo is equally strong as Shy, a student whose story mirrors and complicates Steve's own. The film packs a lot of emotional weight into a brisk runtime, though some critics found the accumulation of crises strains credulity. BAFTA nominated for Outstanding British Film, and Murphy received nods at both the British Independent Film Awards and the Irish Film & Television Awards. Small in scale, large in feeling. Murphy fans shouldn't sleep on this one. Now streaming on Netflix. |
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