Movies about institutions for schooling the unschoolable used to be a big part of British cinema, whether sly, subversive comedies like the St. Trinian’s franchise or heavy social dramas, which flourished in the wake of Alan Clarke’s 1979 prison movie Scum . As a genre, it’s been dormant for a while, but it has taken a Belgian (director Tim Mielants ) and an Irishman (star/producer Cillian Murphy ) to bring it back, and though it breezes by at a surprisingly brisk pace, Steve packs a lot of deep thought into a seemingly slight tale.

The film takes place over the course of a day or two at a school named Stanton Wood; the year is 1996, and a TV crew from TV’s Point West show has arrived to record an item for the late-night edition. They appear to come in good faith, intrigued

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