The Tao of Steve

Rating:
Summary: Vastly Overrated
Review: This movie was extraordinarily overrated. I looked forward to seeing it since last summer, since I had read a lot of positive reviews about the film, and since I like what little I have seen of Donal Logue (notably the excellent cab driver he used to play in MTV spots- his own brainchild, no less). Boy, was I disappointed.

I think self-described "discriminating filmgoers" and reviewers both tend to be wowed by films that lack action sequences and feature lots of dialogue and sharp one-liners. However, that alone does not make a great movie. For one, I had a lot of trouble believing that a guy like Dex was capable of spouting off the kind of philosophical gibberish that he did throughout the film. Secondly, even if you buy the premise that Dex is a thinking-man's stoner who is well-read and deep, you don't like him any more because of it. His spiels about bedding women and enlightenment were really, really boring, and would have sounded more genuine from a man half his age. And the cultish way in which Dex and his buddies followed the tenets repeated throughout the movie, as well as their allegiance to Steves, reminded me of that epidemic of "Men's shows" (like The Man Show, and that one hosted by Frank Zappa's son) that try to promulgate what is cool and macho. Another reviewer herein appropriately mentioned "Swingers, " which I also hated for many reasons, including its attempt to write the script for what was cool without worrying about any accompanying storyline, plot, or redeeming characters. "Tao of Steve" is like that- the story seems to have quickly originated from someone's "Cool List," without form.

There were so many other things that were tough to swallow in this movie: There is no way that Syd would fall for Dex, even if you discount his obesity, his arrogance, his lying, his transparency, and the fact that he doesn't remember he slept with her in college. Her about-face which results in their ultimately hooking up came out of the blue, seemingly just because he expressed that he was falling for her. Also, Dex was obnoxious. A vastly overused tool of movies is to make a lug seem like a decent guy by showing him surrounded by kids (e.g., Happy, Texas; Billy Madison), and this film employs that device in spades. Dex's good-guy buddy was annoying, too, and yet he predictably followed Dex's code and got the girl.

The worst thing about this movie is the quoting it inevitably has engendered from the same knuckle-headed guys who knew (and repeated) every line of Swingers.

Rating:
Summary: Wait a second.
Review: Viewer from Wisconsin - you thought it was about golf? What the? I'm not sure what's more worrying: the opinions of people giving you movie advice or the fact that you just blindly purchase DVDs that might be about golf.

Rating:
Summary: disconcertingly biographical, but more profound
Review: watch the credits carefully, and you'll see the following "Based on a story by Duncan North. Based on an idea by Duncan North. Based on Duncan North." Perhaps I'm the first reviewer to notice, but I strongly suspect that this film is biographical. Watching it for the first time with my then girlfriend, I was embarrassed that she should see it until I realized that no connection could be proven between myself and the main character, Dex: a lovably conceited, overweight berk who uses his superior intellect and twisted view of both Chinese and western philosophy to manipulate those around him until finding that the greater strength is in controlling oneself, embracing uncertainty, and living through love. Some of the dialogue in the film is clunky, but no more so than real life. Watch this movie on more than one level, or don't watch it at all. This is strictly for the the thinking person, and probably more enjoyable to those with at least a passing knowledge of modern American pop culture, philosophy, and dating. The movie gives one some things to think about, without shoving dogma down the viewer's throat. Finally, if you're looking for nothing more than a technique for "picking-up chicks," then the technique presented is sound... but finish the movie, and you might learn that there can be more to it.

Rating:
Summary: Toa of Steve is idiotic spench
Review: What an idiotic piece of drivel this movie is. The hero of the movie acts like he knows everything about women, but he's only interested in getting laid. He's never even had an actual girlfriend, never mind really loved anybody. He comes off like a Taoistic expert on women. Right, and Evil Kneivel is a Zen expert on motorcycle maintainance. All this guy knows about women is how to degrade them. He's a fat unlikable moron who needs a shave but in the movie he gets laid but in real life he would have no friends. He calls women "chicks" and somehow they drop their pants. Right. Sort of like calling a judge "wig head" and having him dropping the charges. Worst of all, he has a terrible frisbee throw, yet he makes a ace in disc golf with a weak, wobbly sidearm that would not impress my 7 year old son. Similarly, he seduces beautiful women with the manner of a rutting boar. The writer of the movie must have had the development of a 14 year old who just pleaseured himself over his first issue of Playboy.

Basically its the worst movie I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: The Little Movie That Could.
Review: You remember the story of the little engine that could, well here's a little film that could... Could just become one of your favorites that is. Now just because it won the hears of those who saw it at The Sundance Film Festival doesn't mean it will blow you away. It won't.

There's nothing in the film that will take your breath away, there are no special effects,and no big mystery is solved. Seeing this movie will not, I will repeat. will not change you life or cure the common cold, or lead to world peace.

This film is a wonderfully witty, smart, clever, funny and warm film about the mysteries of men and women and relationships as seen through the eyes of Dex. Dex, we first meet at his 10th Annual college reunion, was the Don Juan of the campus. He was Elvis. Now, however he's added 150 pounds, and a large basketball of a stomach to the package. Guess what? He's still a pretty busy guy when it comes to women. He's having an affair with the wife of one of his college chums, he flirts incessantly and he coaches his mostly younger room-mates about how to get lucky using the Tao of Steve. This basically means if you act like you don't want to get lucky, you probably will get lucky. You never see people like Steve McQueen working too hard to get a women to go to bed with them, do you? Or as Dex says: "Remember and never forget this: We pursue that, which retreats from us."

Dex doesn't have much ambition. In fact at one point he's accused of being a slacker and he shrugs it off saying: "You know doing stuff is over-rated." He works part time as a teacher in a pre-school. Since he's a big kid himself, he does a great job playing with, and teaching the pre-schoolers. It soon becomes clear that Dex is self-indulgent, brilliant and utterly ill-equipped to have a real relationship with a women. He can impress them, he can tell them exactly what they want to hear, he can please them, but he can't actually relate to women, because of course, he doesn't do a good job of relating to himself. He's not quite sure what he wants, or who he is. He's tried to find out, by reading lots of Kirkegaard, and Lao-tzu and Heidegger and others, but he's not found his center or the peace he needs.

Enter Syd. -- set designer for an opera company that is performing Don Giovanni at the reknowned Sante-Fe New Mexico Opera House. Syd is staying with Dex's good friends. They first meet at the college re-union party, and it turns out Syd and Dex were in the same Philosophy class together in college, but Dex doesn't remember her. Syd seems to remember Dex pretty well though.

Dex's motorcycle breaks down, and soon Syd and Dex are sharing a truck to get them to work. There's an attraction. Dex is attracted and Syd is slightly repelled - or is she?

The surprises in the Tao of Steve aren't with what happens, but in how we get there. The journey is all that counts in this movie. The film is quiet, and simple but incredibly smart. You've not witnessed such a well written screenplay in a long, long time. In fact the film is so deceptively simple and easy-going, you might wonder why there aren't films like this being made all the time. What's the big deal? It's a pleasant amiable little movie and. . . .

Then hopefully you'll be struck by how many times you chuckled at the clever lines, or the little nuances that actors brought to their roles, or how wonderfully paced, and quietly directed the film is. Director Goodman, wrote the screenplay with Duncan North. Her sister Greer Goodman plays Syd , the films leading lady. She's perfect for the role. So is Donal Logue who is wonderfully charismatic as the over-weight, selfish, cunning, but still likeable and charming, Dex. Everything works seamlessly in this film - and then you realize what a rarity that really is. It's a much better debut for Director and co-writer Jeniphr Goodman than say Sex Lies and Videotape was for Steven (Out of Sight, The Limey, Erin B.) Soderbergh. The film is better than those whose footsteps it treads in, beginning with Blume in Love, Soup for One, and failures like Windy City or About Last Night (who's source material, David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago should have made a film as good as this one-but never has). It is certainly not a film that tries to be a Moonstruck, Murphy's Romance, or even When Harry Met Sally. It's comedy and cleverness comes from it's characters rhythms. Even Woody Allen's Annie Hall wasn't as down to earth or naturally warm as this film is. You might even come to realize how the film isn't quite like anything you've seen before, making it an original in a genre you would think impossible to be original in (romantic comedy).

I suppose that might be considered a bad thing by some. The film doesn't go too far to get attention, and it never gets cloying or overly-sentimental. There's no last reel incurable disease which turns the tale into a tragedy either. There are people who want their films to be roller-coaster rides, or give them some emotional tugs and make them cry. This film is too smart to do that, and I appreciated that. What's perhaps amazing is the fact the film-makers have made a film so simple and seemingly done so, so effortlessly, you really do wonder why films like this aren't being made on a regular basis. The reason is, it's nearly impossible for everything to come together so seamlessly to create a film like this.

The little movie that could: The Tao of Steve.

Chris Jarmick