Tao of Steve, The (2000)

Fat boys take heart. Here’s the date movie of your dreams.

Director Jenniphr Goodman’s sparkling feature debut has the tang of fresh comic thinking. Dex, played to perfection by Donal Logue, is an overweight kindergarten teacher in New Mexico who attracts women by running the other way.

Of course, it helps that Dex is ardent, articulate and charmingly funny. Dex’s study of Eastern philosophy has taught him that we pursue that which retreats from us.

Dex stays cool, like his three favourite Steves – actor Steve McQueen and the TV characters Steve McGarrett (Hawaii Five-O) and Steve Austin (The Six Million Dollar Man) –  and the babes flock to him.

All except Syd (Greer Goodman, the director’s sister and a beguiling screen presence), an opera-set designer whom Dex sees at their tenth college reunion. Syd is miffed that Dex doesn’t remember the one night they slept together.

Intrigued, Dex puts his philosophy to work. He tells his friend Dave (Kimo Wills) that a man is either a Steve, a master of love, or a Stu, a slave to passion.

Dex’s ‘Tao of Steve’ has three rules: Be cool, be excellent in her presence, and be gone.

Naturally, love hoists Dex on his own Tao.

Goodman wrote the scrappy, witty script with her sister and their friend Duncan, a Santa Fe teacher who’s the prototype for Dex.

It’s pure pleasure to encounter a sex comedy with enough verbal smarts to coax laughs out of Lao-tzu, Heidegger, Kierkegaard and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

And Logue, who won a deserved acting prize at Sundance 2000, is a rowdy, romantic wonder. Previously lost in character parts (Reindeer Games, The Patriot), Logue hits every note of humour and heart in his breakthrough
role.

Dex
Donal Logue
Beth
Ayelet Kaznelson
Ed
John Hines
Priest
John Harrington Bland
Maggie
Nina Jaroslaw
Rick
David Aaron Baker
Julie
Dana Goodman
Syd
Greer Goodman
Jeremy
Matthew Hotsinpiller
Jill
Sue Cremin
Sarah
Roxanne De Mien
Diane
Jessica Bohan
Chris
Michael Selby
Matt
Craig D. Lafayette
Dave
James ‘Kimo’ Wills
Tris
Tristan Bennett
Duncan
Duncan North
Zak
Zak Garcia
Vanessa
Cira Sandoval
Corey
Shane Hamashige
Secretary
Jeannie Bauder
Doctor
Nicholas Ballas
Kinko’s Chick
Malaika Amon
Kelly
Garland Hunter
Epperley
Dave Terry (Vocals, guitar)
Matt Nader (Guitar, vocals)
Dave Bynum (Bass)
John Truskett (Drums)
Astro The Dog
Himself

Director
Jenniphr Goodman