DRAMA. “Steve.” / “Causeway.” / “Cherry.” / “Smartass.” / “All We Had.” / “Wendy and Lucy.”

“Steve” (2025, Netflix) British drama film, based on Max Porter’s 2023 novella “Shy.” Cillian Murphy is a headteacher in charge of a school for boys with societal and behavioural difficulties. With Tracey Ullman and Emily Watson, this movie ensures a top-notch acting bonanza.

       But it is Mr Murphy's awards-worthy performance that keeps the story grounded on graspable realism. I feel the behaviour of the boys, regardless of their mischief, is a bit exaggerated. It is only Shy (played by Jay Lycurgo) who channeled a plausible condition, which is essentially a mental health crisis among the young. 🎥💻📽

“Causeway” (2022, Apple TV) drama film, follows a soldier struggling to adjust to her life after returning home to New Orleans. Stars Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry. 

       Ms Lawrence's low-key and nuanced performance here reminds me of her breakthrough work in 2010's “Winter's Bone.” From that point, her ascent to Hollywood royalty was no brainer. 

       Meanwhile, Brian Tyree Henry's own journey to respectability, from the First Season of TV's “Atlanta” in 2016, is hard not to notice. Brian is so grounded and focused in “Causeway” that a mere jolt meant the failure of this feature. In fact, he received an Oscar Best Supporting Actor nomination for this, although he is the lead actor here. 

       Kudos to director Lila Neugebauer for “quietly” weaving a non-preachy, non-self pitying take on military PTSD, as scripted by Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel, and Elizabeth Sanders. This movie's message is full of hope and promise. 🎥💻📽

“Cherry” (2021, Apple TV+) crime drama, based on Nico Walker‘s semi-autobiographical 2018 novel. Follows the life of Cherry, from a college student to a PTSD-afflicted veteran who robs banks to pay for his and his wife's drug addiction. 

       This feature offers Tom Holland (as the fictional Nico) a stage to show his potentials but the formulaic and cliche'd joint doesn't go anywhere beyond expectations despite trying so hard to achieve aesthetic coolness. I bet Mr Walker's book is the same, a lumbering derivative of “soldier with PTSD” melodramas that we already saw a million times. He robbed banks? So? 

       Still the “trauma porn” feels trying so hard in the guise of stylish self-mutilation. As expected, oxy emerges into the fray. What else is new? 🎥💻📽

“Smartass” (2017, Sling) crime drama. Based on true events (mostly), a 15-year-old runaway becomes intimately acquainted with California’s “Murder City” after being released from jail, just shy of midnight.

       This indie should be categorized as comedy. But it's not really funny. Drama? Not exactly dramatic either. The wacko characters, all of them, are all stereotypes of the stereotype. 

       The lead Freddie, played by Joey King, in cuteness cliché, saves the stereotyping with her smartass charisma. 🎥💻📽

“All We Had” (2016, Sling) drama film, starring and directed by Katie Holmes. Set during the 2008 worldwide financial crisis, single mother Rita Carmichael and her teenage daughter Ruthie are constantly running when Rita's relationships go bad. This movie is based on the 2014 novel “All We Had” by Annie Weatherwax. 

       This movie is Ms Holmes’ directorial debut. An admirable attempt but the movie's frigid over-sentimentality defeats its storyline's promise of an optimistic reckoning, or something to that effect. The pace is slow and the conflict gets stuck in Rita's mawkishness. In turn, the talent of Stefania LaVie Owen as daughter Ruthie gets wasted in a tiring redundancy of joyless self-pity. 🎥💻📽

“Wendy and Lucy” (2008, PlutoTV) drama film, adapted from Jon Raymond’s short story "Train Choir,” about a homeless woman, Wendy, who searches for her lost dog, Lucy. 

       Another low-key, frills-free collaboration by director Kelly Reichardt and star Michelle Williams, and they haven't disappointed me yet. There is really nothing so hot about the story; it is mushy and predictable. But this indie had the ability to engage us deeply and stay glued to the end. 

       The loneliness and impoverishment that Ms Williams’ Wendy nonchalantly channels isn't the typical “poverty porn” that manipulates. She is determined and full of hope. Insistent. Michelle Williams has somehow mastered minimalist acting and understated characterization. 

       Yet what can we do? A movie with a dog squeezes our heart to tears, always. 🎥💻📽