ACED THE ACTING, FAILED THE MELODRAMA

Sidney Lumet once said that screenwriting was plagued by what he called “rubber-ducky” scenes -pieces of tidy back story that account for a character's troubles later on, like having one's ducky taken away as a child.

- NATALIA WINKELMAN

This technique is employed to an egregious effect in Steve, a showy character study on Netflix. It’s set in 1996 at Stanton Wood, a British reform school for teenage boys whose behavioural issues have booted them from polite society. Steve (Cillian Murphy, stubbly and careworn) is the devoted head teacher, a good Samaritan and true believer in the institution who's nonetheless being driven mad by the work.

The film flaunts its kitchen-sink bona fides by setting its story over a single frenzied school day. Director Tim Mielants (the Murphy-starring