Traces a pivotal 24 hours in the life of Steve, a headteacher of a last-chance reform school who struggles to keep his students in line, while also grappling with his spiraling mental health.
WHAT I LIKED: Tim Mielants and Max Porter's 'Steve,' is a beautiful and heart-wrenching film about the importance of empathy, and how, so often, the world just puts up barriers to it.
The story takes place across the course of a day in the titular character's "school for troubled boys," where the staff are bastions for meeting people on their level and treating them with care and compassion, but constantly find themselves swimming against rivers of bullshit to do so.
Firstly, there are the boys' individual traumas which have invariably made them violent, insular or depressed. Then there are their own personal struggles to contend with such as Steve (Cillian Murphy)'s chronic anxiety. But more significantly than any of that, there are numerous systemic, external pressures that make their jobs almost impossible.
A news crew is in for the day filming them like zoo animals to determine whether the school is a waste of taxpayer's money. A smarmy MP arrives for a ridiculous photo opportunity despite his government being responsible for cutting so much funding to the place. Their building is falling apart around them and their owner arrives to tell them they're closing it down completely. Plus, they're chronically understaffed; fighting fires and running from crisis to crisis without the time and resources to help people in the way they're so passionate about doing.
All of that together makes it perhaps the most gripping and realistic depiction of public sector work I've ever seen on screen, and it's emphasised brilliantly by both the handheld, documentary-style camerawork, and the naturalistic performances from the students and staff alike. The situation it intricately builds is one that's close to breaking point, and by the end of the day, Steve certainly reaches that point, with Cillian Murphy selling both the stress and determination to help the boys in perhaps the most real and heartbreaking performances of the year.
When Steve does finally crack, we see one particular student at risk, and the camerawork turns from erratic and grounded, to floaty and dream-like, and a score begins to play for the first time. This change in tone is there to demonstrate that even the most determined of public sector staff can neglect their responsibilities when they're under so much pressure, and it will leave you bitterly angry at any system which beats down those devoting their life's work to helping other people with empathy and compassion. Frankly, I can't think of a more important message a film could leave you with than that.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: For what it is, it's a hard film to fault.
VERDICT: With its gripping portrait of wonderful, determined public sector workers and the insurmountable pressures they face, 'Steve,' is an advocate for empathy, and a damming indictment of systems that get in the way.
