South Carolina, 1973. A funeral calls a family home, and Uncle Frank turns that road trip south into a warm, sharp comedy-drama about the distance between who we are and who our relatives think we are.
What is Uncle Frank about?
Frank Bledsoe lives in Manhattan, a long way from Creekville, the small South Carolina town his family still calls home. In 1973 the family patriarch dies, and Frank and his eighteen-year-old niece Beth set out by car for the funeral. Partway along, Frank's lover Walid joins them unexpectedly, and the trip becomes a three-way negotiation between the version of Frank his relatives know, the version Beth is getting to know on the road, and the man Walid refuses to pretend not to be. The destination is a household with its own rules and judgements, and the film builds steadily toward the moment the two halves of Frank's life meet in one room. Alan Ball writes the journey with equal room for laughter and discomfort, letting the long stretches of highway do the work of pulling three people toward honesty.
About the cast
Paul Bettany leads the ensemble, with Sophia Lillis and Peter Macdissi completing the central trio on the road. Steve Zahn, Judy Greer, Margo Martindale, Stephen Root and Lois Smith fill out the Bledsoe family waiting in Creekville, a group of character actors who can sketch a whole personality in a single scene at a kitchen table.
Context & significance
Alan Ball wrote and directed Uncle Frank, and the material is built on family secrets, the American South, and the cost of keeping two lives apart. Released in 2020 and running about 95 minutes, the film is a period piece set in the early seventies, a moment when a gay man could live openly in a big city but not necessarily in the town he came from. It is a United States production that mixes comedy and drama in roughly equal measure, with the humour coming from character rather than set pieces.
Watching Uncle Frank on Ktime
Uncle Frank is on K-Time with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so viewers can follow it in Farsi or watch the original English performances with subtitles. A K-Time account login is required to stream; the Farsi interface lets you switch tracks from the player at any point.