By Katie Palmer
Copyright manchestereveningnews
Steve, a film that recently premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, has been airing in select cinemas and is on Netflix on October 3. The film is a product of Big Things Films, a production company owned by Cillian Murphy, who also stars as the title character. Upon reading the script for the first time, Murphy confessed to Deadline: “It just broke my heart. They’re the sorts of things I love as a reader and as a performer.” Tracey Ullman and Jay Lycurgo also feature in the film, with Lycurgo’s character Shy described by Netflix’s Tudum as “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”. But was the film inspired by a true story? Here’s everything you need to know. Set in the mid-90s, Steve is a cinematic interpretation of Max Porter’s Sunday Times bestselling book, Shy. The narrative centres around head teacher Steve and his students at a last-chance reform school. As Steve battles to prevent the school’s closure, he also wrestles with his own mental health issues. While the story isn’t based on a specific real-life event, author Porter revealed that it draws heavily from genuine themes. Speaking to Esquire, he said: “It is a book about 1995, that works as a book about now, I hope,” and “I wrote it from a position of absolute horror at the political present.” He added: “Anybody reading this book now, who is awake, will see what the consequences of a place like Last Chance closing is. “When you close youth clubs and social support systems in inner cities, what happens when you strip the welfare state of funding? These things are obvious and terrifying. Where are we? Where are we going?” While embodying Steve for the screen, actor Murphy shared with Deadline his experience of developing the character alongside author Max. He confessed: “I gotta say, it was one of the most kind of exposing and terrifying characters I’ve ever played, because it was written bespoke for me by Max, but also had, I think, quite a lot of him in there. “There’s elements that I feel like, you know, there was no accent. Max knows me so well at this stage, he would kind of write for the way I go on and talk. So, it was quite terrifying, because there’s no real prep needed.” Steve will make its Netflix debut on 3 October.
