Some writers might use subtext. Others have the main female character ask the male lead, “So you’re on a f*cked-up American pilgrimage?” It never hurts to spell things out, but Via Negativa ricochets quite a bit between overly explaining things and letting Young Mazino’s handsome face do all the work. This is a movie about crisis, both of a man who is suddenly deeply unsure of who he is, and of a nation, that no longer quite knows for which it stands. And while the real value is indeed the friends made along the way, the beauty in Via Negativa is how strongly the mood of the search comes through.
Dan (Mr. Mazino) is a priest in Kansas with a modern and open-minded outlook, which doesn’t make him particularly popular in his parish. After an incident his bishop (Tony Hale) suggests he take a break. This is probably about as directly fired as anybody gets in a religious setting, but Dan doesn’t quite take the hint until he recognizes a picture of someone in a parish newsletter. This gets him behind the wheel of his car, but the journey gets off to a bad start when he hits and injures a coyote. Obviously Dan buys OTC medication and a dog cage, bandages the damaged limb and puts the injured animal into the back of his car. (What must be an overpowering smell is never really commented on.) An offer of a place to spend the night from a widowed farmer (Gabriel Marin) ends up the next morning with the farmer’s daughter Anna (MiMi Ryder) stowed away next to the coyote. Anna is running away – she’s fifteen, she’s miserable, this randomer has wheels and anywhere is better than home – and while Dan doesn’t want to get involved with her drama he’s a priest. He’s basically categorically unable to deny any request for help. He wears his clerical collar everywhere he goes, including to a raucous motel party while Anna sleeps safely in their room.
Strangers tend to treat Dan as a walking confessional, someone who will drop everything to pay attention to their problems and solve them, one way or another. And the charming thing about Dan is that he always does. Whether he’s singing karaoke in a roadhouse, or shooting firecrackers down a sinkhole, or flirting with an excommunicated Mormon, Dan has a direct line to God and everyone knows it. And how could he refuse their requests for help and remain a man of God? Even if, technically, he’s not one anymore?
The movie is set on the roads from Kansas to Colorado, though it was largely filmed in Oregon. Maximilian Pittner’s cinematography uses the pretty scenery as a backdrop to the faces, a wise choice, and Robert Schafer’s editing manages to ensure we always know what Dan is thinking even when he doesn’t spell it out. This is an adaptation of a novel by Daniel Hornsby, published in 2020 (and unread by this critic), which might be why there’s no direct reference to any of the current American political moment. But that also could be because ‘via negativa’ is a line of theology that approaches the divine through negation – in other words, we only speak of God by discussing what cannot be said about him. If that sense is true, writer-director Hannah Peterson has provided a double meaning to absolutely everything happening here. We are meant to focus on what is NOT being said, instead of what is. When a bartender (Zoë Winters) confesses a crime, you can feel both Dan’s sincere attention and his heartfelt wish that he didn’t have to be hearing this. It’s also clear the bartender is so relieved to be unburdening herself that she doesn’t notice what Dan is thinking. The skill here is ensuring that we do.
But underneath all the adventures with the coyote, and the teenage runaway, and everyone else Dan encounters in passing, it slowly becomes apparent that his seemingly aimless journey is him working up the courage to see several different people, all for reasons which must not be spoiled. What can be said is that the underlying issues here are finally starting to be addressed directly in cinema – the recent Anemone is a cousin in themes of self-denial and recovery from trauma – but in this context that is unfortunately also a modern cliché. What’s the opposite of a cliché is the brilliant choice of Mr. Mazino as the lead – his sense of wounded decency is so strong it carries the entire film – and stronger still is the unexpected and overwhelming feeling of tenderness throughout.
Everyone here is wounded, and messy, and making mistakes, but in spite of all of that also trying – sometimes even successfully – to be kind to one another. In addition to that Dan is trying with all his might to do the right thing, regardless of whether others around him support that. Sometimes, like the coyote, they bite, but the right thing still needs to be done regardless. It ends up making Via Negativa a desperately lonely and lovely experience, one which will stay with you much longer than its running time.
Via Negativa recently played at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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