Cillian Murphy stars as the lead in Steve (Mirlants, 2025) which is the latest British Netflix film that gets a limited release in cinemas. You feel like Netflix have their sites on a similar success to Adolesence with the film which not only is concerned with youth rage and masculinity growing up, but also uses certain editing and camera techniques to purvey this. This similarity in unique cinematography certainly is what works best for the film. It is set within 24 hours within a youth rehabilitation school where the damaged and unruly teenagers is played against the teachers trying to give them a second chance to make something of themselves. The short period of time in which it is set adds to the feeling that it really could be falling to pieces for them It is a gradual process but these 24 hours act as a microcosm to the overall decline in the school and even the rehabilitation chances for the children. The cinematography also makes the most of drone shots and obtuse angles that give a sense of the altered state in which it is set but more than anything create a great spectacle that adds to the feeling of the film rather than taking away from it.

That’s not to say everything in the film really seems to work that well. The film is about teenagers not having a sense of belonging, yet at times it seems like an allegory for the film itself. It struggles to know totally what it wants to be, there is little chance for character development and understanding the minds of the characters when the film is constantly having to deal with narrative points like the filming of a camera crew into the school, the announcement of the closure to the school, taking of a students life and the local MP coming to visit. It could’ve explored more thoroughly the emotions of the students and teachers just by following their every day actions in the school rather than having these plot devices create these emotions for them. The times where you get a glimpse into their feelings is because a news reporter is asking them psychological questions, rather than something we feel we have gone on a journey with the characters to discover.