critics consensus

Uncle Frank finds writer-director Alan Ball still untangling the modern American family dynamic, aided by standout work from Paul Bettany and Sophia Lillis. Read critic reviews

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Movie Info

In 1973, teenaged Beth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) leaves her rural Southern hometown to study at New York University where her beloved Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) is a revered literature professor. She soon discovers that Frank is gay, and living with his longtime partner Walid “Wally” Nadeem (Peter Macdissi) -- an arrangement that he has kept secret for years. After the sudden death of Frank's father -- Beth’s grandfather -- Frank is forced to reluctantly return home for the funeral with Beth in tow, and to finally face a long-buried trauma that he has spent his entire adult life running away from.

Rating:

R (Drug Use|Some Sexual References|Language)
Genre:

drama, gay and lesbian
Original Language:

English
Director:

Alan Ball
Producer:

Alan Ball, Bill Block, Michael Costigan, Stephanie Meurer, Jay Van Hoy
Writer:

Alan Ball
Release Date (Streaming):

Nov 25, 2020
Runtime:

1h 35m
Production Co:

Your Face Goes Here Entertainment, Parts and Labor
Aspect Ratio:

Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Paul Bettany
Frank Bledsoe

Sophia Lillis
Beth Bledsoe

Peter Macdissi
Walid "Wally"

Steve Zahn
Mike Bledsoe

Judy Greer
Kitty Bledsoe

Margo Martindale
Mammaw Bledsoe

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News & Interviews for Uncle Frank

TV Premiere Dates 2020

Holiday Movie Calendar 2020

New on Amazon Prime Video in November 2020

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Critic Reviews for Uncle Frank

All Critics (117) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (90) | Rotten (27)

I thought this is the best performance [Paul Bettany's] given since Gangster No. 1... secondly it's really funny.

December 2, 2020 | Full Review…

Mark Kermode
Kermode & Mayo's Film Review
Uncle Frank revolves around Uncle Frank, and Bettany's career-great performance as a man who knows where the gaps are in his life, and how much his whole relationship with his family is about holding his breath.

December 1, 2020 | Full Review…

Richard Whittaker
Austin Chronicle
Even Paul Bettany firing on all available cylinders can't quite save this mixed-bag melodrama from its flimsiness.

November 29, 2020 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Kevin Maher
Times (UK)
Uncle Frank is fated to become the green bean casserole of this holiday's film streaming options: designed to appeal to everyone, but destined to remain uneaten.

November 27, 2020 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Oliver Jones
Observer
An evocative slice of retro Americana and a highly entertaining road movie.

November 26, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Linda Marric
NME
Uncle Frank doesn't have the witty indirectness of American Beauty or Ball's TV classic Six Feet Under, but it has a strong and very convincing performance from Bettany.

November 26, 2020 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
Given its subject matter and its myriad supporting characters - and some of the wonderful actors who inhabit them - Uncle Frank feels like it could have been a more-robust affair.

February 14, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Mark Meszoros
The News-Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Uncle Frank, written and directed by Alan Ball, is clearly a drama, but it hides the true depths of its drama for much of the film.

February 4, 2021 | Full Review…

Alex Bentley
CultureMap
Alan Ball's Uncle Frank is rife with potential, but in rushing the catharsis it fails to engage the viewer, and Frank remains as unknowable to us as he was in the beginning.

January 29, 2021 | Rating: 5.5/10 | Full Review…

Natasha Alvar
Cultured Vultures
Uncle Frank looks good, has a nice enough script from Alan Ball, and a collective cast that makes it tolerable.

January 29, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Leo Brady
AMovieGuy.com
Uncle Frank wears its heart on its sleeve, and that works for a while. Yet, as the movie goes on, it becomes so sweet and saccharine, you just wind up with a toothache.

January 27, 2021 | Rating: C | Full Review…

Christopher James
The Film Experience
If you're into Sleepy Time Down South cliches, it goes down like that first mint julep of spring - refreshing and redolent of a time thankfully past, but for all its ugliness, formative in ways that only passing years make clear.

January 3, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Roger Moore
Movie Nation