"Steve" (Mielants, 2025) - Review (TIFF 2025)

Tender stories do not always need to be told in complex ways. Sometimes saying nothing provides the most.

As director Tim Mielants said, Steve “looks for the beauty and pain in children” that’s often overlooked by the world. He wanted to explore the idea of “understanding who we are,” and the film does just that. 

Written by Hailey Passmore

Films do not need to be complex for their message to be received by the viewer. Mielants is a director who has recently focused on slowly introducing his audiences to this unknown world, allowing them to experience life through the characters. With his previous film, Small Things Like These (2024), and now Steve, Mielants chooses to share smaller stories with the world that might otherwise not have been known.

Steve (Cillian Murphy) is the headteacher at Stanton Wood reform school, who works with a small team of colleagues as they struggle at times to keep the boys in line. On one Thursday, Steve decided it would be a good idea to bring in a camera crew to present the school to the world, hoping good press could help with funding and sharing the boys’ stories. That ceases to be the cas,e however, when the entire day turns into one crazy thing after another. With less than ten boys in the group, they each have their own unique personality and issues, but Steve sees them for who they are. Not only must Stanton Wood deal with the film crew, but they’ve also got the possibility of the school being shut down due to funding reasons.

Their second film in the span of two years, Mielants and Murphy have worked together on two brilliant projects adapted from novels. Small Things Like These was adapted from the novel of the same name by Claire Keegan, and now Steve, adapted from Max Porter’s novella Shy. This collaboration between director and actor/producer has resulted in two genuine projects which focus on lesser-known stories. Between the actors, cinematography, and internal message of the film, Steve surpasses Small Things Like These, only proving that this director-actor duo works harder to produce newer and different results with each collaboration. 

Many brilliant British actors join Murphy to lead this stellar film and provide the talent that aids in its success and endeavours. Tracey Ullman and Emily Watson belong to the heart of British acting, and combining them with the new talents of the young boys both Mielants and Murphy chose to cast, allow for a level of deeper understanding to be created between character and viewer. 

Cillian Murphy has proven once again that his new path into more fatherly and guardian-type figures suit him well. Though Steve is a mentor and guardian to all the boys at Stanton Wood, his relationship with a young boy named Shy (Jay Lycurgo) feels all the more personal to the audience. As Steve is Steve’s perspective of the novel Shy, the two characters are introduced right from the beginning, which hints to audience members unfamiliar with the novel that they are the two main protagonists of the film. Right off the bat, there appears to be a father-son bond between Steve and Shy as the two joke around about it only being morning when Shy is already smoking weed. Their banter comes mainly from Murphy and Lycurgo’s bond as actors, and as the plot develops, we see their bond shift and change.

Creativity is a quality that is not lacking in Mielants’ directorial decisions. Working alongside cinematographer Robrecht Heyvaert, the pair crafted a style of film that resonates with the viewer. They invite us into the lives of these teachers and boys by carefully shooting them from angles that invoke meaning and show them in a different view. As Steve focuses on the one day when they’re being documented by a film crew, each recording is shown to the audience by projecting it as if you were watching it on a VHS on an old box TV, adding both to the nostalgia of the moment and reminding us that these characters are at their most vulnerable while being interviewed by a total stranger. The shot and editing choices make the film more pleasing to the eye and help introduce the characters. As each boy appears on screen, Mielants takes the interview footage of the boys and cuts in between them. An interesting take on giving characters a background story by having the character introduce themselves to the viewer, but not purposely towards the audience within the context of the film. There are also moments highlighted between Steve and Shy that force the audience to come to their own conclusions about their relationship.

Steve presents the world with a touching and intimate story of boys who, though they’ve done wrong, have been mistreated since. In some cases, people deserve a second chance, but it's when they aren’t provided with the proper resources or circumstances that they make more bad decisions. Their brains might not work the same way the average person’s does, but that does not mean they don’t deserve care in the world. Both Steve and Shy have dealt with mental health, as with many of the boys from Stanton Wood, but their connection is so strong. They fight each other, they tear the place to shreds, but Steve and his coworkers never give up on them. The staff of Stanton Wood are more than just staff, and the boys are more than just reform boys; they are all caring people. The empathy that they each carry is the story that’s within Steve. They make us want to understand who we are, just as they are on their own journeys as well. 

Another successful collaboration between Cillian Murphy and Tim Mielants, Steve had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, September 5. While it makes its way to Netflix in late October, if you’re a reader, perhaps read Shy before watching Steve. If not, either way, be sure to watch Steve and prepare to get emotional when it releases on Netflix on October 3, 2025. 

Photo : Courtesy of TIFF