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“There’s so much, and it’s a lot, but hold tight because you won’t always feel like this.”

At Stanton Wood, each day is a fresh start for students — until the fire alarm is pulled, or windows are smashed, or a fight breaks out. “Steve,” directed by Tim Mielants, is based on the novel “Shy” by Max Porter. The film follows the titular headteacher (Cillian Murphy) of the all-boys reform school, who navigates his personal challenges and those of his students.

The documentary-style movie opens with Steve sitting in a chair in silence, accompanied by a fictional film crew, noticeably stressed at the thought of recounting stories about Stanton Wood. Shortly after, the film resets to Steve driving through green pastures while using a recording device to remind himself of all the responsibilities that have piled up in his life. During the drive, Steve spots Shy (Jay Lycurgo), one of his students, dancing in the fields by himself while listening to music and smoking weed.

Early on, the bond between Steve and Shy is evident, with screenwriting simple yet nuanced enough to distinguish that Shy is important to Steve — more so than the other students. Aside from the screenwriting, Mielants’ direction successfully establishes Steve’s story: That of a man riddled with tasks to keep the school afloat while keeping his own head above water. Through the use of jittery cinematography by Robrecht Heyvaert, Steve’s inner turmoil is made eerily clear.

Beyond setting up Steve’s character arc, Mielants makes it evident through plot parallels that Steve and Shy are one and the same, even if the characters themselves don’t realize it. Not far into the film, Shy receives distressing news: His mother and stepfather no longer wish to be in contact with him. With masterful scene work, viewers find that Shy, despite being one of the more thoughtful and sensitive boys, has deep-rooted struggles that he omits from his conversations with the school psychiatrist. From there, the slow descent into madness for both Steve and Shy are captured in a sobering light, shining a light on the challenges that exist for both educators and troubled teenagers — populations so-often disregarded by society.

Visually, “Steve” is a pleasure. For example, when depicted with documentary-style cinematography, a fight between two students in the kitchen of the school highlights the sudden, nonsensical, and trivial nature of the students’ brawls. During a difficult moment for Steve in a staff meeting at the height of Shy’s pain, Heyvaert uses more unique camera work to take viewers through a dynamic journey of each section of the school, accompanied by a drum beat that feels like a metaphor for the worsening mental state of both characters. Generally, the film presents a strong effort of parallels between Steve and Shy at their lowest points, highlighting the inadvertent connection that the two have developed.

At some points, the film is weakened by its ever-changing focus on different characters, where subplots detract from the story of Shy, who the film tries to establish as a main character early on. With the school’s closure and his lack of familial support, where Shy will end up is left unclear, and despite eventually realizing at the end of the movie that there’s more to life than succumbing to his pain, there’s still no satisfying resolution for how he’ll deal with his emotions going forward.

While at some points “Steve” is constrained by its inherent chaos, the film is grounded by the performances of Murphy and Lycurgo. Murphy resonates with viewers by depicting a man who aims to be everything to everyone all at once, and Lycurgo’s raw portrayal of a boy who has no way of outwardly expressing his pain is equally striking. With strong acting by Watson as well — particularly during a moment of counseling with Shy — the film is able to pull itself back up from the oftentimes stagnant storyline.

Overall, “Steve” is a sobering look at certain populations that society forgets about far too frequently. By portraying educators and troubled teenagers in a new, humane light, Meilants achieves something worthy of praise within a brief runtime. The closing scene includes a shot of Steve and Shy looking together at a poster on a school wall that reads “Coastal Carvings.” In a nod to iron sharpening iron, “Steve,” in an authentic and memorable way, drives home the message that there is a certain beauty within resilience.

—Staff writer Emily G. Fallas-Chacon can be reached at emily.fallas-chacon@thecrimson.com.