Steve plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics

Boys Will Be Boys … Unfortunately

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.

                     Steve (Tim Mielants)   rated R    93 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

WHAT HAPPENS: We’re in 1996 rural England at Stanton Wood, an institution for troubled teenage boys, although it’s more of a counselling center/school than a “damn jail” (to quote a line from William Holden’s character in Picnic [Joshua Logan, 1955] about his own adolescent experience in a “reform school”) where our focus will be on equally-troubled Steve (Cillian Murphy), a teacher, and one of his most-promising-but-quite-distraught students, Shy (Jay Lycurgo).  All events transpire over one morning to night into the next morning where Steve first discourages Shy to not sneak away outside to puff a joint, then has to deal with ongoing animosity/fighting between Jamie (Luke Ayers) and Riley (Joshua J Parker), soon learns with his co-worker faculty, including Amanda (Tracey Ullman) and counselor Jenny (Emily Watson), that trustees Julian (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) and Charlotte (Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis) have sold the school, to be vacated in a couple of months with no clear indication of what becomes of any of these inhabitants.  To make all this worse, the faculty had previously decided to allow a documentary crew in that day so much of what we see consists of interview footage of the various characters, with the non-doc shots of the ongoing drama having their own documentary feel with lots of actions in the scenes, moving camera, etc.  This continuing chaos takes its toll on Steve, who we learn later was involved in a car accident (not his fault) that’s left him traumatized over the death of a young girl, addicted to the oxycodone pain-killers he needed after the crash and frequent slugs of alcohol, with his tensions taken to a new level when Shy’s mother calls to say she and his stepfather have essentially disowned him, further pushing him away from any help Jenny tries to give.  ⇒All of this culminates at night when Shy goes into a lake clutching a bag of rocks, seemingly for suicide (like Virginia Woolf [Nicole Kidman] in The Hours [Stephen Daldry, 2002]), but then we see him later throwing the rocks at the school windows until he’s tackled by the other boys, so it seems he didn’t drown after all—unless this is some sort of alternate ending.  When dawn comes, Steve goes home to his wife and 2 young daughters, then climbs into his attic with no resolution for us as to what comes next for him.  (Might he is the one who actually dies?)⇐

SO WHAT? As with my last review (The Lost Bus [Paul Greengrass] which also got my 4-stars rating), what happens in Steve works best when viewed rather than just read about, so while I hope you finish what’s posted here I also greatly encourage you to watch this powerful film.  If what's in the plot summary is not yet enough to entice you to Steve here are a couple more encouragements (1) The acting is magnificent throughout from Oscar-winner Murphy (Oppenheimer [Christopher Nolan, 2023]), Oscar-nominee Watson—along with extensive wins and noms in many films—and also well-rewarded Ullman, but also the main young actors who present powerful performances; and (2) For those of you interested in theatre history Steve is a marvelous example of a narrative that follows Aristotle's unities in drama of action, place, and time as found in his Poetics (ca. 335 BC)—well, truthfully, he didn’t talk about time (action should all take place within no more than 24 hours, but later dictates of stage work assumed it from the other 2 [action should be connected to the protagonist, place should be in 1 location]), so in Steve all is ultimately connected to the doings of our primary teacher in the singular location of Stanton Wood, with events occurring from morning of one day into the next morning (time graphics between scenes show us how that day's progressing).  

 

 This is not an easy film to watch given the hostility of some of the boys toward each other and their faculty, with Steve losing control of his own well-being, turning often during this focused day to addictions, with ambiguous events at the end that could imply tragic results even as we hope the final scenes of Shy aren’t as bad as earlier ones imply.  This is truly a slice-of-life drama where we get only hints/abbreviated info about what's led these characters to the miserable states they find themselves in with no indication of what awaits any of them after the school closes.  You’ll find some reasonable questions about what’s next for Steve in this insightful short video (10:10; Spoilers of course), but even there this presentation ends with implications, no real sense of closure, so if such ambiguity is too frustrating, you might want to skip Steve; otherwise, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: Steve opened in some domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on September 9, 2025 (largely for awards-societies requirements of theatrical runs for honors consideration either later this year or next spring) and possibly could still be found in a few of them, the easiest was to see it is through streaming where it’s free to Netflix subscribers ($7.99-$17.99 monthly, depending on ad-free option or not, if you want to explore their extensive holdings beyond this film) which you’ll find in a mixed response from the CCAL to probably do so, as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are at 78%, yet the usual misers at Metacritic offer only a 68% average score.  As I’ve noted frequently in these postings, my 4 stars designation represents the highest I usually go, reserving 4½ and 5 stars for truly remarkable cinematic experiences, so I’m in agreement with those like Peter Debruge of Variety who says: “There’s a sense of dread from the get-go, but these outsiders’ video cameras lend another level of verisimilitude to a ragged, resolutely unsentimental depiction of a dozen or so teens who could, it’s clear, rip one another to shreds. […] Mielants assembles the elements into an intricate postmodern (but still mostly linear) collage, elevating what might have otherwise felt slightly stagy (what with the single location and all) by mixing the various characters’ too-blue-for-TV testimonials with artfully observed private moments.”  But, to be fair to critics who aren’t so enthusiastic, I’ll cite Natalia Winkelman of The New York Times: “But once Steve learns that Stanton Wood trustees plan to shut the school down, the movie takes a turn for the stylish. A droning score sets in, and at one point, the camera soars in and out of a classroom, through the rain and over a muddy soccer game. The sequence impresses, but there is an aloofness to the virtuosity, as if it were designed for a filmmaking reel. […] In hewing closely to Steve, the whole affair takes on a grating note of self-sacrifice, of perseverance through suffering. When, in one scene, the news crew asks Steve to describe himself in three words, he answers with a wan smile, ‘Very, very tired.’ That’s how one feels after finishing this clunky melodrama.” So ... no?

 Yeah, I know, you can’t please everyone, so I’ll leave it to you to decide if what’s been presented here gives you reason to embrace or avoid.  In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my usual tactic of a Musical Metaphor, this time Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today" (on his self-named 1968 album), a song that’s been recorded by many, from Bette Midler as part of the soundtrack to her starring role in Beaches (Garry Marshall, 1988 [another of her songs from that movie, “Wind Beneath My Wings” won Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year]) to the British raggae band, UB40 to Neil Diamond, Joe Cocker, and Leonard Nimoy, but the version I always liked the best is from the angelic voice of Judy Collins (1966 album In My Life) so I’ll use it here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTSqjUZJm7k&list=RDFTSqjUZJm7k&start_radio=1 where lyrics such as “Lonely, lonely / Tin can at my feet / Think I’ll kick it down the street / That’s the way to treat a friend” “Bright before me the signs implore me/ To help the needy and show them the way / Human kindness is overflowing / And I think it’s going to rain today” link up for me with both Steve’s shortcomings and his higher aspirations, with the later characterizing the impact of the film as well. Steve's full of tough stuff but is surely worth your viewing time if you can tolerate what you’re seeing.

          

SHORT TAKES

           

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).

 

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

 

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

          

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

          

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 18,473.  (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Share this post