Cillian Murphy's Netflix school drama earns gold star

TIFF 2025: Cillian Murphy's Steve is a dour, dark delight

In an adaptation of Max Porter's novella Shy, Netflix's Steve follows Cillian Murphy as the eponymous head of a school for wayward boys.

Cillian Murphy's Netflix school drama earns gold star

Based on Max Porter's best-selling 2023 novella Shy, Netflix's classroom drama Steve is a darkly funny and unflinchingly honest portrayal of young men trapped in a broken system.

‘Steve’ Review: Cillian Murphy Beats The Drum For Compassion In A Moving British School Drama – Toronto Film Festival

Movies about institutions for schooling the unschoolable used to be a big part of British cinema, whether sly, subversive comedies like the St. Trinian’s franchise or heavy social dramas, which flourished in the wake of Alan Clarke’s 1979 prison movie Scum. As a genre, it’s been dormant for a while, but it has taken a […]

‘Steve’ Review: Cillian Murphy Turns Inspirational Teacher Tropes Upside-Down in the Year’s Best Netflix Movie

Most schools have one or two problem students. At Stanton Wood, it’s nothing but. Operated by the title character, “Steve” — into whom lead actor Cillian Murphy channels all sorts of irreconcilable conflict — this is the reform school of last resort. It’s the place “very disturbed young men” (as novelist Max Porter described them) […]

Cillian Murphy drama Steve exposes the perils of novel-to-film adaptations – review

Max Porter takes his novella ‘Shy’ and plants its protagonist into the background for this Netflix drama – it’s a puzzling decision, despite the strong performances from newcomer Jay Lycurgo and the rapper Little Simz

‘Steve’ Review: Cillian Murphy Stars in a Reform School Drama That Teaches Only Bad Lessons

For fans of the mannered, ersatz verité of “The Bear” comes the new film “Steve,” from Belgian director Tim Mielants. The Netflix film, about a British reform school for troubled teenage boys, swaps the murmuring, sweaty-browed chefs of “The Bear” for murmuring, sweaty-browed instructors charged with the care of a handful of rambunctious adolescents. The stakes are higher than dinner service, but the net effect is the same: “Steve” is another st…