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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)

Directed/Written by: Robbie Pickering
Starring: Rachael Harris, Jon Gries, Matt O’Leary and John Diehl

A barren and horny housewife’s sex drive is thwarted by Abe (John Diehl), a husband more concerned with the Lord’s Prayer and His way, which includes refraining from sex if there’s no chance of conception. Of course, as is often the case (evidenced by the multitude of media produced for such reasons), he of much faith has his own ways of coping with his needs, including secret (yet regular) porn-induced deposits to a sperm bank for more than 20 years.

When a mid-masturbation stroke lands Abe in the emergency room, mumblings reveal the possibility that the serial sperm donor has fathered a son, information that prompts Linda (Rachael Harris) to leave the confines of her religion-lovin’ Texas for the drug-ridden and destitute Tampa, Fla., locale in which her husband’s son Raymond (Matt O’Leary) resides. On a mission to bring the barbaric and destructive son to Abe’s side, Linda’s cause is aided by Raymond’s need to flee his prison-break predicament. Immediately, the bleak sterility of Linda’s god-fearing hospital and home life is contrasted with the flat, wide-open landscapes of American road travel and Raymond’s capricious unpredictability.

With a score worthy of discovery on its own and a competence in cinematography that belies the film’s indie status, there is very little about which to nitpick in director Robbie Pickering’s debut feature effort. It comes as no surprise that accomplished filmmakers with innate and interesting sensibilities such as Nicole Holofcener, Jay Duplass, Rian Johnson,Miranda July, Jeff Blitz and David Gordon Green appear in the thank-you credits.

Many an unlikely duo has taken to the road for cinema’s benefit, many of whom begin at opposite ends of the spectrum of morality and eventually learn to appreciate the other. With an enviable depth to its central characters, “Natural Selection” sizzles from an instability (and a confident measure of insanity) that beckons for it to be compared to works by theCoen brothers and for Harris’ revelatory turn as Linda to be recognized officially later in the year.

Photo: Rachael Harris and Matt O’Leary star as unlikely road-trip companions in “Natural Selection”; courtesy Los Angeles Film Festival