The Tao of Steve

Plot

The movie opens at a 10-year college reunion that a reluctant Dex has decided to attend in the company of his married friends Rick and Maggie. In his college days, Dex was the stud of the campus, using philosophy as an aphrodisiac to bed a series of young women. After putting the first of what will be successful moves on a student bartender, he finds Rick and Maggie talking with Syd.

Syd is back in town for an upcoming opera production for which she is the designer; she is also staying with Rick and Maggie. While she remembers Dex, his memory of her is a little more fuzzy.

Dex shares a house with three other slacker buddies who spend their free time (along with Rick) engaged variously in playing disc golf, playing poker, and drinking - all while trading quips about philosophy and pop culture. One of the group, Dave, has met a woman and the group decides to help him in his pursuit of her by teaching him their approach to seduction, "The Tao of Steve."

Dex has his own relationship problems, as the woman with whom he has been having an affair, Beth, has started to give off signals that she would leave her husband to be with him. This puts Dex in a bind, as he views her as nothing more than a "friend with benefits".

Meanwhile, Dex is becoming more and more intrigued with Syd, with whom he must carpool after his motorcycle breaks down. Dex is habitually late, often still in his bathrobe and taking long hits on his ever-present bong when she arrives to pick him up.

Syd is not entirely unreceptive to Dexs overtures. But there is a major obstacle to be overcome, for it turns out that Syd was one of Dexs college conquests and the fact that he has completely forgotten about it does little to endear him to her.

Cast

Production

Director Jenniphr Goodman, after finishing her studies at New York Universitys film school, returned with her husband to her childhood home of Santa Fe, where they shared a house with North, a friend from college. Much like his fictional counterpart, North was an overweight kindergarten teacher who nevertheless had astounding success bedding women, including two of Goodmans own friends.

Out of work, Goodman began to have long conversations with North over the next two years, fascinated by his success and philosophy. This led to her wanting to make a film about North, either a documentary or some sort of one-man show. When her sister Greer became involved in 1996, they developed the project into a narrative film.

The Goodman sisters and North spent the next two years writing multiple drafts of the script as it evolved from a personal odyssey story into a romantic comedy. Pre-production began in New Mexico, and Jenniphr hired another NYU alumn, Teo Maniaci, as the cinematographer. Unfortunately, the start date for filming had to be pushed back when the actor they wanted for the lead turned out to be unavailable. During this time, Maniaci had given the script to Anthony Bregman, with whom he had just worked on a film that was made for Bregmans employer, Good Machine.

The delay was fortuitous, as Bregman and Good Machine came aboard as producers. The script went through 10 more drafts that year with Bregman, who comments, "Thats one of the luxuries about independent film, you often have time to make the script perfect. Youre always waiting for something — an actors schedule to free up, more money to appear — so you have lots of time to reschedule, re-budget, and rewrite."

The actor in question was Donal Logue, who had been off making what would be John Frankenheimers final film, Reindeer Games. Shooting began on July 7, 1999.

Reception

The film enjoyed mostly positive reviews, with Roger Ebert calling it "...an easygoing but bright comedy that focuses on Logues effortless charm (he won the best actor award at Sundance). It creates the feeling of settling in comfortably with old friends... One of the things I like about the movie is the wit of its dialogue, the way sentences and conversations coil with confidence up to a conclusion that is totally unexpected."

David Edelstein of Slate.com also praises the dialogue: "[The Tao of Steve] has some of the funniest romantic banter in a movie in years..." He says the film "...went down like a slice of warm pecan pie topped with two scoops of Ben & Jerrys Bovinity Divinity."