Natural Selection

I don't watch that many 'New-kid in a small town' movies, so the common premise did not eschew me (although I suspect veterans of this may still find this one is different from the lot).

Natural Selection is a movie shot with an attention to detail. From the start, every character's nuance and mannerism (e.g drawing attention to how one character empties his pockets - becomes important later on) quickly blossoms into character defining details which becomes relevant to the movie's plot. The cinematography is good. I won't overpraise it by saying I saw Mona Lisas in this, but I enjoyed it enough that the after-images of some frames is still there in my mind's eye.

A worthwhile watch, in a kickback-on-a-rainy-Sunday kind of way.

Natural Selection stars Mason Dye as the new kid in high school who has must moved to town with mother Amy Carlson. Carlson has never gotten over the breakup of her marriage and has sbstance abuse problems. Often Dye is the designated adult in the family.

Because of his home situation Dye doesn't make friends easily. One who does befriend him is Ryan Manzert who is friendly enough and acts as a protector of sorts. But is gradually revealed to be a very dark character.

Natral Selection is a well acted drama. But the pace is dreadfully slow. It's like an extended version of an after school special.

C grade movie that could have been written by a high schooler themselves. It's sooo predictable like all these high school shooter films. The actors did their best with a very mediocre script but it was just bland, predictable, and droningly boring. Cinematography was adequate, audio ok mostly, lighting ok. Makeup and hair could have been much better.

Don't waste your time when there's so many of these exact same stories out there. Try "Elephant" instead. No offence to the actors and crew but this was crap.

While this movie definitely has a low-budget feel to it based on story, character depth, and music, it still manages to send an important message to the viewers.

We need more movies that bring up the end-scene topic - which is predictable - but it needs to be done with better scripts, casting, and musical score to reach people other than the Hallmark "after dark" and similar audiences.

In total, not bad for what it is. Nice to see a movie with an actual ending for once!

I think this was ultimately a Christian movie without being preachy, so have at it.