Half of the time at a bar or party, I see a girl, and I clam up and stumble into being myself. I am a Stu. With all of the savvy of the late Jim Varney I make my approach and most likely prepare to tell this girl some stupid shit about the weather.
Then I remember the Tao of Steve; be desireless. Be a Steve. Be the Six-Million-Dollar Man, Steve Austin: better, faster, stronger. A Stu is the opposite of a Steve. A Steve is a Steve McQueen (or a Steve Austin), a man who gets girls without even thinking about it. A man who is so cool and occupied with his own business that women can't help but be drawn into his disinterest in their presence. This is the premise for the new movie The Tao of Steve.

"Rule 1 of the Tao of Steve: Eliminate your desires. If you're out with a girl and you're thinking about getting laid, you're finished, a woman can smell an agenda."

Hordes of horny young men could learn a lot from the exploits of the movie's main character, Dex. Dex was the shit in college, bedding down women left and right. When we encounter him at the beginning of the film, however, he appears to be an out-of-shape pot-smoking beer-drinking everyman. He is at a college reunion, and there are plenty of his female victims in attendance, gawking at his present appearance, but they are still intrigued by his nature. Dex has a whole system, complete with rigidly outlined rules, for wooing women, and he is still staggeringly good at getting laid. He has taken his vast knowledge of the philosophical teachings of Lao-tzu, Heidegger, Groucho Marx and the like, and devised his own rather successful techniques for dating.

While this movie may sound like an exploration of a man fine-tuning the plots of the fleshy ganglion in his pants, this is not entirely the case. When the film's director Jenniphr Goodman (yes, that's spelled right) graduated from NYU film school in 1994, she moved back to her native Santa Fe and lived with an old friend Duncan North. She was amazed not only by North's ideas about god and life, but also by his success at seducing women. She wanted to capture his exploits on film. Shortly thereafter, Dex was born. Eventually her sister Greer (who plays Syd, Dex's main love interest in the film) got involved in the project and with vast amounts of Greer and Jenniphr's input, Duncan wrote a screenplay about his ways. The result is The Tao of Steve, an unassuming romantic comedy with layers like an onion.

"A romantic comedy weighted down with other stuff." Greer called it.

"He thinks his life, he doesn't live it," Jenniphr said of Dex, a man who ultimately hides behind his theories of getting laid. He is afraid of finding a challenging woman and falling in love.

The Tao of Steve is not just about how to get chicks, it's about finding yourself. It also offers a light but effective treatment of the idea of exploring your god and growing out of old habits.

While North's experiences are the crux of the movie, he has since moved on. "When I was 16 I was this big fucking geek, and I said I am going to get good at this. But once you're confident, you're like, 'I don't even remember when I was insecure,'" Duncan said. "I followed the rules pretty religiously from 16 to 21... I have not done the Tao of Steve in a long time. I did that until I had confidence, and then once I had confidence, I was like, 'fuck the desireless thing.'"

Duncan was weary at first that a filmed exposé on his former ways might hinder his success with women. "I was afraid it would completely screw up my ability to score, but it has maxed it out like a hundred times."

While Duncan actually auditioned for the role of himself in the movie, it is Donal Logue who plays Dex in the film. Although he has appeared in about 40 films, Logue has been somewhat of a wallflower in feature films up until this point. Known to the ultra-observant as Jimmy McBride, the greasy music-savvy cab driver whose short clips graced MTV in the early '90's, Logue is a tight fit as Dex.

It is fortunate that Jenniphr was attuned to his presence, because his performance is convincing and tender, and also brings his talents and energy as an actor into an overdue light.

While there is no commentary track, "The Making of Jaws" is an outstanding substitute, combining interviews with just about everybody involved in the production with behind-the-scenes photos and footage. It is a chronicle of a movie that must have seemed doomed on a daily basis, plagued with mishaps, uncooperative weather and a mechanical shark that would not function--a circumstance that Spielberg managed to make work for the final product, rather than against. Of par-ticular interest to this writer is the genealogy of two of the film's most memorable moments --" You're going to need a bigger boat," improvised by Scheider, and Quint's U. S. S. Indianapolis speech, which went from a slight mention in Howard Sackler's draft, to a multi-page speech by John Milius, to its final form, re-written by Shaw himself.

After such a satisfying extra, the disc's other treats seem less substantial. "Outtakes" is a rather silly section to even have, as only two scenes are referenced: one, where Scheider's gun repeatedly refuses to fire, and Quint's death scene, when Shaw accidentally spits stage blood into his eyes. Hardly the hilarity --or variety-- one hopes for from outtakes.

Overall, however, an outstanding pack-age for an outstanding film -- my venerable old laserdisc pressing can now be safely retired.

Dr. Freex

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

Interview with the Vampire should have been a good movie. It's directed by Neil Jordan, of the fabulous Crying Game. Its screenplay was written by Anne Rice, based on her own book. Despite initial misgivings, they cast Tom Cruise as Lestat and he does an amazing job. He perfectly realizes the sensuousness and slightly ridiculous fopishness of Lestat, only rarely letting his famous "Tom Cruise character" peek through. Kirsten Dunst, in one of her first big-screen roles, does the impossible with Claudia, walking the fine line of her paradoxical existence as both child and old soul. Brad Pitt, as Louis, has the soft, vulnerable beauty of the sensitive, guilt-rid-den vampire. As I said, it should have been a good movie.

There are virtually no extras on this disc. There are brief cast bios and filmogra-phies and that's it. Such a rip-off! I would have liked audio commentaries by director Neil Jordan and writer Anne Rice at the very least. Some background on the books would have been a nice bonus, too. Overall a very disappointing disc, not worthy of medium. More recently Warner Brothers released an enhanced version that includes behind-the-scenes footage, audio commentary, documentaries, theatrical trailer, production notes, and interviews.

Lisa McInnis