{"id":401571,"date":"2025-09-06T02:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T02:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401571\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T02:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T02:56:10","slug":"cillian-murphy-beats-the-drum-for-compassion-in-a-moving-british-school-drama-toronto-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401571\/","title":{"rendered":"Cillian Murphy Beats The Drum For Compassion In A Moving British School Drama \u2013 Toronto Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMovies about institutions for schooling the unschoolable used to be a big part of British cinema, whether sly, subversive comedies like the St. Trinian\u2019s franchise or heavy social dramas, which flourished in the wake of Alan Clarke\u2019s 1979 prison movie Scum. As a genre, it\u2019s been dormant for a while, but it has taken a Belgian (director Tim Mielants<\/a>) and an Irishman (star\/producer Cillian Murphy<\/a>) to bring it back, and though it breezes by at a surprisingly brisk pace, Steve<\/a> packs a lot of deep thought into a seemingly slight tale.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film takes place over the course of a day or two at a school named Stanton Wood; the year is 1996, and a TV crew from TV\u2019s Point West show has arrived to record an item for the late-night edition. They appear to come in good faith, intrigued by the good work being done by headmaster Steve (Murphy) with kids from underprivileged backgrounds. But in a piece to camera later, the presenter reveals the real reason they are there: \u201cSome call it a last chance, some call it an expensive dumping ground for lost causes.\u201d Given that the scheme costs the taxpayer \u00a330k a year, it\u2019s no surprise that resources have been dwindling lately, and this news item certainly won\u2019t help that.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt begins with Steve driving, but not to work. First he goes to a field where Shy, one of his students, is smoking a joint and dancing to drum\u2019n\u2019bass on his headphones. Steve gently coaxes him back to school, where the film crew is causing havoc. The texture of the news footage is suitably grainy, like VHS, but it stitches seamlessly in to the v\u00e9rit\u00e9 style of the film itself, a restless sea of handheld camera that becomes more agitated as its protagonist does. The catalyst for this a meeting with the school\u2019s board \u2014 who look more like trustafarian hedge managers than social workers \u2014 where it is revealed that the grand but crumbling school building is going to be sold off at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tMielants\u2019 thoughtful, affecting film is about the repercussions of that meeting, and while Steve struggles to accept the fact that his life\u2019s work is about to vanish before his eyes, we also see the TV crew\u2019s footage of the young people in his care. They\u2019re a strange bunch, physically and emotionally, and at times they can be charming, funny and cheeky (\u201cYou can\u2019t just casually call me a d*ck and a poof,\u201d Steve explains wearily to one of the boys). They can also be caustic and, in a disturbing new trend, prone to turning violent, as the school\u2019s psychologist (Emily Watson) attests. The school\u2019s deputy, Amanda (Tracy Ullman) summarizes the situation with a succinct outline of her duties. \u201cI\u2019m part prison warden, part nurse, part battleaxe, part mummy\u2026 And I f*cking love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWho would want to give up so much of their time for kids like this, in an educational program described as \u201cspectacularly unsustainable\u201d? Murphy, sporting a beard and back to a healthy weight after Oppenheimer, does his best to explain that and, in doing so, really disappears into the part. Even martyrs can only take so much, however, and when Steve\u2019s pent-up anger finds an outlet in drink and prescription drugs, we start to find out a little more about his tragic backstory and the life-changing event that now defines him.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s sufficient material here for a sentimental star vehicle, but Murphy generously shares the spotlight with a small but remarkable ensemble (kudos goes to casting director Robert Sterne for that). Chief among them is Ullman, who, like Murphy, is somehow never fazed by the frenetic ups and downs of life at the school, and then there are the kids themselves, a motley bunch whose neuroses and camaraderie recall the psych ward in Milos Forman\u2019s One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s no Nurse Ratched here, however, but there is the kindly Steve, who watches out for all of them, especially Shy, who is hiding a secret from the others. Because of his violent fits, his mother has told him she and his stepfather will no longer see him \u2014 no phone calls, no visits. \u201cBut what if I need you?\u201d he asks, incredulous and emotional. What indeed. At its heart, Steve is a bittersweet celebration of the art of being there for other people in their darkest moments, while acknowledging that it sometimes takes the patience of a saint to do so.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitle:<\/strong> Steve
Festival:<\/strong> Toronto (Platform)
Director:<\/strong> Tim Mielants
Screenplay:<\/strong> Max Porter
Cast:<\/strong> Cillian Murphy, Tracey Ullman<\/a>, Jay Lycurgo, Simbi Ajikawo, Emily Watson
Distributor:<\/strong> Netflix
Running time:<\/strong> 1 hr 32 mins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Movies about institutions for schooling the unschoolable used to be a big part of British cinema, whether sly,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[66296,77,3943,6080,26832,138489,138490,138491,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-401571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cillian-murphy","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-review","12":"tag-steve","13":"tag-tim-mielants","14":"tag-toronto-film-festival","15":"tag-tracey-ullman","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115155106897454837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}