There are few actors better able to convey true emotional turmoil than Cillian Murphy. He effortlessly inhabits characters pushed right to the brink, from his portrait of a tortured scientist in Oppenheimer to his apocalypse-survivor in 28 Days Later . It’s no surprise that he excels once again in his second collaboration with director Tim Mielants (after Small Things Like These ), a propulsive, rough-hewn but gut-punch-packing adaptation by screenwriter Max Porter of his own novel, Shy .

This time Murphy is tasked with showing the whole spectrum of human emotion over the course of a single day. He makes short work of it, playing the titular character Steve, a warm-hearted but harried headteacher running — pretty much singlehandedly — a state-funded reform school for young m

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