Modest yet intermittently enthralling, Robbie Pickering’s eccentric road movie “Natural Selection,” a favorite at SXSW 2011, makes intergenerational quirk seem as logical as the way your own relatives behave, which to say, not very logical at all. Pickering shows a refined knack for finding a bright line between comedy and caricature in his story about a disillusioned Christian woman who sets out to locate a son her hypocritical husband spawned via a fertility clinic. Rachael Harris, who played “The Hangover”‘s fiancée, goes without makeup, with rich human and comic reward. A raft of technical limitations don’t impede the performances. With Matt O’Leary, Jon Gries, John Diehl, Gayland Williams. 90m. (Ray Pride)
“Natural Selection” opens Friday at the Music Box.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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