1+1: A Natural History of Sexuality

Only an evolutionary biologist could turn such a spicy topic as sex into an existential downer. John Maynard Smith of Sussex University, Rick Michod of the State University of Arizona, and Pierre Henri Gouyon of the University of Paris do a darn good job of taking the zip out of humanity's favorite pastime in this intelligent, if somewhat dry, documentary that examines the hows and whys of the fragile and uncertain process of sexual reproduction as it's emerged over four billion years. Why, they wonder, did evolution choose sex, forcing females to purposely dispose of half their genes to be parasitized by males? From the perspective of the aggressive gene, the human individual is actually merely a host enabling it to reproduce, and selection should--in theory--favor genes that act positively prior to human reproduction but negatively afterward, encouraging us to age and die because once our reproductive years are over, what good are we to them? Like I said, not exactly trot out the teddie and fire up the candles stuff. Still, it's an interesting discussion, even if some of the oomph gets lost in translation (it's a French production, although plenty of English is spoken by Smith and Michod), and the droll humanity of these brilliant evolutionary biologists helps makes up for the rather dull production values (Smith and Gouyon literally draw their key points on lined paper, while the 16mm film stock of gametes and other protoplasmic goo engaging in molecular recombining is reminiscent of sixth grade biology class). Recommended, overall. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantú)