Review: Steve

Official synopsis: Follows headteacher Steve (Cillian Murphy) battling for his reform college's survival while managing his mental health. Concurrently, troubled student Shy (Jay Lycurgo) navigates his violent tendencies and fragility, torn between his past and future prospects.

You've got to love Cillian Murphy winning that Oscar and going back to making these smaller scale, quiet films he loves. This time he's re-teaming with Small Things Like These director Tim Mielents. This film touches on mental health, how underfunded some of the resources are, and how you really have to be caring and committed to help these individuals through it. And to top that off, they're all being filmed for a news segment. 

Steve is shot pretty frantically at times, which perfectly captures the hot and cold moods we find at this school. Mielents manages to do this in a way that doesn't feel amateur. Sometimes it was a little distracting, but it always made sense. If anything, this film reminded me a lot of Manic (2001) with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Don Cheadle. The biggest difference is that this film focuses more on the teachers than the students, but it had a similar vibe, and I enjoyed them both.

Murphy is great as always, but Lycurgo is the standout for me. You can tell how much Shy wants to do the right thing, but he has so much to deal with. There's a scene with him on the phone with his mother that broke my heart. 

Steve may be a little too simple at times for such a complex issue, but it makes for an easy watch and is worth it for the performances. You can catch it now streaming on Netflix.

Grade: B