Bad Land

Chong (The Whole Animal) offers a muddled story of a loner and her troubled family. Thirty-something Regina lives alone in her childhood home in the badlands of Alberta, Canada. Her younger brother Ricky left home seven years earlier, and in the interim, Regina has spoken to no one and become dangerously overweight. When Ricky shows up with his six-year-old daughter, Jez, he refuses to explain their sudden appearance and the absence of Clara, his wife and Jez’s mother. Regina assumes the pair are on the run, and she gives them refuge, hoping to form a meaningful relationship with Jez. When Jez squeezes Regina’s pet rabbit too tightly, knocking the wind out of him, Regina slaps her on the forearm. The episode causes Regina to confront the long history of violence in their family, including her mother’s abuse, and these details reverberate when Chong reveals why Ricky and Jez fled from their home. Unfortunately, the meditation on generational trauma is obscured by underdeveloped characterizations, particularly of Regina, whose extreme isolation and obesity feel a bit exploitive in the absence of deeper insights. It’s a letdown. Agents: Marilyn Biderman and Samantha Haywood, Transatlantic Agency. (Sept.)