Natural Selection

This debut feature plays like a glum after-school special whose jealousies and painful secrets project little heat.

There's little that comes off as "natural" in "Natural Selection," a stiffly heavy-handed, drawn-out, faith-based drama about a Christ-like teen struggling to find his true path.

Woefully, Natural Selection is unable to deliver. From the script to production quality, it plays off as overdone and out of touch.

... it tries to be much more meaningful and intelligent than it is, wanting to make sweeping statements about humanity and cruelty but the end only manages to trip over its own contrived, soap opera dramatics.