Critical response Joe Leydon of
Variety described the film as "an engagingly offbeat comedy that respects its characters too much to push too hard for easy laughs, even when those characters risk making complete fools of themselves."
Stephen Holden of
The New York Times stated, "Aside from Ms. Harris's performance, the main reason to recommend
Natural Selection — very conditionally — is that its creator clearly has talent." Betsy Sharkey of the
Los Angeles Times called the film "intriguing and intelligent" and praised Harris for her "finely textured performance."
Eric Kohn of
IndieWire gave it a grade of "B+" and opined, "Despite its flaws,
Natural Selection succeeds as a crowd-pleasing, tear-jerking romp." Katie Walsh of
IndieWire also rated the film "B+" and wrote, "It wraps up with one of the most satisfying endings of an indie film in years: it is both ambiguous and decidedly not so." Catherine Shoard of
The Guardian gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and noted, "
Natural Selection ticks all the boxes with a firm grip. Its opening alone is a lovely cinematic coup." Meanwhile,
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone gave it 3 out of 5 stars and highlighted, "Harris is just perfect without ever looking down on Linda's faith in God and herself. Her performance earns a special kind of glory."
Roger Ebert, writing for his
RogerEbert.com website, gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars and commented, "Harris' performance illuminates
Natural Selection. […] She's the big reason that
Natural Selection is so engaging."
Accolades At the 2011
South by Southwest Film Festival,
Natural Selection won 7 awards: the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature, Breakthrough Performances (for Harris and O'Leary), Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Score/Music, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. The film was nominated for
Best First Feature and
Best Female Lead (for Harris) at the
27th Independent Spirit Awards. == References ==