Cillian Murphy Netflix Original Steve Rips TIFF In Half With Wild Reviews
The premiere left critics at each other's throats, sparking one of the nastiest Rotten Tomatoes splits of the year.
Before Cillian Murphy heads back to the 28 Days Later world next year with The Bone Temple, he has a Netflix detour first. His first-ever Netflix original, a drama called Steve, just bowed at TIFF and critics are already arguing over whether it’s awards bait or a beautiful disaster.
What Steve actually is
Steve comes from director Tim Mielants and writer Max Porter, adapting Porter’s 2023 novella Shy into something a little stranger and more cinematic. The film is set in the mid-90s over one pivotal day at a last-chance reform school. Murphy plays Steve, the headteacher, trying to keep the school alive in the face of looming closure while barely keeping his own mental health above water. Running alongside that is Shy (played by Jay Lycurgo), a kid who’s torn between trying to move forward and the pull of self-destructive habits. On paper it sounds like Dead Poets Society meets Lean on Me and Dangerous Minds; in execution, it’s more stylized and more jagged than those references suggest.
TIFF reaction: masterpiece or mess?
Steve had its world premiere in the Platform Prize section at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend, and the early scorecard is mixed. It’s currently at 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, which screams divider-not-consensus. Some folks are into the ambition; others think the film is trying way too hard to make you feel something without earning it.
"So much of Steve feels designed to get a response from the viewer on the other side of the glass when a better movie would give us the feeling we’re actually in the same room."
- Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Louis Roberts (Loud and Clear Reviews) tips his cap to the script’s empathy and the stacked cast, but suggests sticking closer to Porter’s book might have helped. Nadia Dalimonte argues the movie is more than a standard teacher-student drama, praising the bold stylistic swings and Murphy’s turn as a fiercely committed, frustrated, vulnerable head.
"A profoundly moving and superbly acted diamond in the rough."
- Peter Debruge, Variety
On the flip side, Joey Magidson sees good intentions smothered by melodrama. And Gregory Ellwood goes further, calling out the film for dialing up the drama without truly centering the kids or the professionals who serve them.
"It’s melodrama for melodrama’s sake, with an awkward attempt at a 'happy ending' that is borderline cringe."
- Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist
The release plan (and why the timing matters)
Netflix is giving Steve a quick theatrical pit stop before it hits the service, which reads like an awards-play trial balloon more than a box-office move.
- Limited theatrical release: September 19, 2025
- Netflix launch: October 3, 2025
- Runtime: 92 minutes
- Director: Tim Mielants
- Writer: Max Porter (based on his 2023 novella Shy; the film is a reimagining)
- Producer: Alan Moloney
- Cast: Cillian Murphy (Steve), Jay Lycurgo (Shy), Tracey Ullman, Simbi Ajikawo (aka Little Simz), Emily Watson
- TIFF premiere: Platform Prize section, 2025
- Current Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%
Bottom line: if you like your school dramas clean and inspirational, this probably isn’t that. If you’re up for something prickly, stylized, and occasionally messy (by design or not), Steve might be your thing. You can decide for yourself when it hits Netflix on October 3, 2025. And then we can all argue about it until Murphy shows up in The Bone Temple next year.