The Tao of Steve

The Tao of Steve is a sparklingly fresh take on a well-known narrative formula that both revitalizes the genre and provides a thoroughly entertaining perspective on men's travails with romance. The title refers to the prototypical cool guy, a Steve McQueen, Steve McGarret, or Steve Austin, a man without need who has the ability to attract women effortlessly. It's the code by which a group of guys tries to live, particularly articulate philosopher king Dex, an oversized kindergarten teacher with a hyper sex drive and a charming and incredibly effective way with women that somehow gets them to chase him. He's the kind of guy we don't see very often onscreen, a man whose attractiveness is not physical but intellectual and verbal, although he lives a life of Frisbee golf, poker nights, and the pursuit of sex.

Brilliantly portrayed by Donal Logue, Dex is smart, casually self-deprecating, and still living without plan or purpose ten years after college graduation. Quoting Lao-tzu, Kierkegarrd, and Heidegger to support his seductive endeavors or instruct his colleagues, Dex is self-indulgence personified until he meets Syd, an old college friend who doesn't respond to his technique. She uncovers a person who may still be able to grow up.

Breaking free of the conventions that so often pervade this type of film, filmmaker Jenniphr Goodman displays a terrifically deft directorial touch, as well as an outstanding feel for character and dialogue that lets men be men and invigorates both sexes with humanizing insight and wisdom.