Who doesn’t love a good kitchen sink drama? After all, it’s almost time for them to start streaming across the Atlantic, as we’re just around the corner from Festival Season, right when would-be Oscar hopefuls begin to sort themselves out. One we’re particularly interested in is Tim Mielants’s Steve, which stars the perpetually compelling Cillian Murphy as a reform school principal who is on the precipice of collapse — much like the school he’s devoted his life’s work to. Angry young-ish teacher, meet angry young men. It’s a match made in the classic styles of Irish cinema, and we’re excited to see what Murphy and Mielants have cooked up, especially after Small Things Like These.
Netflix dropped a trailer for the project earlier on Wednesday, and you should check it out before you get left in the dust by everyone who somehow knew that Adolescence would take up a solid month of arts-and-entertainment section news cycles.
Take a look:
Here’s a synopsis for Steve:
“Set in the mid-’90s, ‘Steve’ is a reimagining of Max Porter’s Sunday Times bestseller ‘Shy.’ The film follows a pivotal day in the life of headteacher Steve (Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy) and his students at a last-chance reform school amidst a world that has forsaken them. As Steve fights to protect the school’s integrity and impending closure, we witness him grappling with his own mental health. In parallel to Steve’s struggles, we meet Shy (Jay Lycurgo), a troubled teen caught between his past and what lies ahead as he tries to reconcile his inner fragility with his impulse for self-destruction and violence.”
Steve will have its world premiere at TIFF on September 5. It’ll hit select theaters two weeks later on September 19, and arrive on Netflix two weeks after that on October 3. That’s a swell six weeks for Steve, huh?