Robbie Pickering’s Natural Selection, which swept the SXSW film festival last year, is an assured debut feature for the most part. The story and odd couple pairing of its two leads might make the movie come off as a comedy on paper when it’s actually a slightly humorous look at two tragic characters. The way things play out is mostly clichéd, but it’s a testament to the film’s strengths that most of these clichés aren’t noticeable Natural Selection is a flawed film but it’s still a good one, mostly because of a brilliant lead performance that elevates the weaker material.

Linda (Rachael Harris) is a devout Christian whose husband Abe (John Diehl) refuses to have sex with her. Linda is unable to have any kids and, as an opening title card quoting the Bible explains, it’s a sin to spill one’s seed for reasons other than procreation. What Linda doesn’t know is that for the past two decades Abe has found a loophole for himself by regularly donating his sperm. It’s when Abe suffers a stroke at the sperm bank (while getting off to religious-themed porn, naturally) that the lifestyle Linda’s been barely able to hold together over the years falls apart. After hearing her comatose husband mutter something about wanting to meet one of his children, Linda travels to Florida to find his son Raymond (Matt O’Leary).

It turns out that Raymond is a drug addict on the run from the police so when Linda shows up at his door offering him a free trip out of town he gladly accepts. In no time Linda and Raymond are off and it’s not hard to guess how things will turn out. Linda, who’s more conservative, will slowly open up while Raymond, who can’t control his temper, will eventually calm down and show his nice side. As Raymond and Linda keep running into detours on their way to Abe, Linda’s brother-in-law Peter (Jon Gries) starts to look for her thinking she’s in some sort of danger.

Robbie Pickering and his cinematographer Steve Calitri make a lot of interesting choices throughout Natural Selection. There are plenty of striking compositions and interesting choices when it comes to setting scenes up that show some serious talent behind the camera. When Raymond and Linda have their first argument with each other the scene is done in a long shot with a nearby parade not only drowning their voices out but obscuring both of them in the frame. It’s a unique approach to a scene that other people might have milked the drama out of, but Pickering’s approach seems to highlight the irrelevance of their feud.

The writing might be Natural Selection’s weakest point. Other than Linda, everyone else feels like they’ve been written with broad strokes. The same can’t be said for Rachael Harris who is, simply put, a revelation in this film. Harris, who is mostly known from The Hangover and other comedic work, has been typecast over the years in roles as bitchy women. Seeing her as a kind-hearted Christian is a complete 180 from her previous work (even Pickering himself has admitted that he thought she was wrong for the part at first) but her performance is so good that at times it transcended some of the film’s limitations. Harris portrays Linda as a tragic but vulnerable person, going for a naturalistic performance rather than playing up the religious aspects of her role for laughs. It’s an incredible discovery and, in a just world, would be getting proper recognition during awards season.

Despite its shortcomings, Natural Selection is an enjoyable film. It establishes Robbie Pickering and Rachael Harris as two people to watch in the coming years. The two of them inject enough life into a familiar genre to make it feel fresh again. It’s worth checking out, if only to see one of the best performances of the year.

The 2012 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced today by presenters Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale kicking off the award season. Of the total 277 total film submissions The Artist and Take Shelter raked in the most nominations this year with five in total. Close behind them with 4 nominations were films Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Descendants, and Drive. I would say the front-runner for awards this year is The Artist but all of the films above will have a shot of being represented here as well as at the Oscars.

Michelle Williams gets her second nomination Best Female Lead nomination in a row with her role in My Week With Marilyn (last year’s nomination was for Blue Valentine). She was not the one to get a repeat nomination for the second year in a row as John Hawkes also received a nomination for Martha Marcy May Marlene for Best Supporting Male (John Hawkes won the award last year for Winter’s Bone).

In order to qualify for Spirit Awards a film has to be made for under $20 million, which would explain the absence of Tree Of Life among the nominations, which is a little disappointing as it has been my favorite film of 2011 so far (I still have a fair amount to see still though). Although I have not seen them yet, I am a little disappointed that Alps and The Skin I Live In did not make the cut for a nomination in the Best Foreign Film category (need to have at least 1 U.S. producer to qualify for the other awards).

The winners will be announced at the 27th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 25th and the broadcast will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on IFC.

50/50 – Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin
Beginners – Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Jay Van Hoy, Dean Vanech
Drive – Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter – Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist – Thomas Langmann, Emmanuel Montamat
The Descendants – Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Mike Mills – Beginners
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
Jeff Nichols – Take Shelter
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Alexander Payne – The Descendants

Another Earth – Directed by Mike Cahill; Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker
In The Family – Directed by Patrick Wang; Producers: Robert Tonino, Andrew van den Houten, Patrick Wang
Margin Call – Directed by J.C. Chandor; Producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto
Martha Marcy May Marlene – Directed by Sean Durkin; Producers: Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Josh Mond
Natural Selection – Directed by Robbie Pickering; Producers: Brion Hambel, Paul Jensen

Demian Bichir – A Better Life
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Ryan Gosling – Drive
Woody Harrelson – Rampart
Michael Shannon – Take Shelter

Lauren Ambrose – Think Of Me
Rachel Harris – Natural Selection
Adepero Oduye – Pariah
Elizabeth Olsen – Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn

Albert Brooks – Drive
John Hawkes – Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
John C. Reilly – Cedar Rapids
Corey Stoll – Midnight In Paris

Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter
Angelica Huston – 50/50
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Harmony Santana – Gun Hill Road
Shaileen Woodley – The Descendants

Bellflower – Written and directed by Evan Glodell; Producers: Evan Glodell, Vincent Grashaw
Circumstance – Written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz; Producers: Karin Chien, Maryam Keshavarz, Melissa M. Lee
Hello Lonesome – Written and directed and produced by Adam Reid
Lovers of Hate – Written and directed by Dee Rees; Producer: Nekisa Cooper
The Dynamiter – Writters: Matthew Gordon and Brad Ingelsby; Directed by Matthew Gordon; Producers: Kevin Abrams, Matthew Gordon, Merilee Holt, Nate Tuck, Amile Wilson

An African Election – Jarreth J. Merz, Kevin Merz
Bill Cunningham New York – Richard Press
The Interrupters – Steve James
The Redemption of General Butt Naked – Daniele Anastasion, Eric Strauss
We Were Here – David Weissman, Bill Weber

A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
Melancholia – Lars von Trier
Shame – Steve McQueen
The Kid With A Bike – Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Tyrannosaur – Paddy Considine

Joel Hodge – Bellflower
Benjamin Kasulke – The Off Hours
Darius Khondji – Midnight In Paris
Guillaume Schiffman – The Artist
Jeffrey Waldron – The Dynamiter

Joseph Cedar – Footnote
Michel Hazanivicius – The Artist
Tom McCarthy – Win Win
Mike Mills – Beginners
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash – The Descendants

Mike Cahill & Brit Marling – Another Earth
J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
Patreck DeWitt – Terri
Phil Johnston – Cedar Rapids
Will Reiser – 50/50

Margin Call
Director: J.C. Chandor
Ensemble Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore

Chad Burris – Mosquita y Mari
Sophia Lin – Take Shelter
Josh Mond – Martha Marcy May Marlene

Heather Courtney – Where Soldiers Come From
Danfung Dennis – Hell and Back Again
Alma Har’El – Bombay Beach

Simon Arthur – Silver Tongues
Mark Jackson – Without
Nicholas Ozeki – Mamitas

The Jury and Audience Award winners of the 2011 SXSW Film Festival were announced. Winning big this year was the comedy Natural Selection with seven different awards including Grand Jury Winner for Narrative Feature. Below are the full details from the official press release: