Uncle Frank is a 2020 LGBT road trip drama. It is the second directorial feature by Alan Ball, best known as the writer of American Beauty and the creator of Six Feet Under.
The year is 1973, and Beth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) from Creekville, South Carolina has just started her first year of college in New York City, where her Uncle Frank Bledsoe (Paul Bettany) happens to be a professor. After crashing a party of Frank's, she meets her uncle's longterm partner Walid Nadeem (Peter Macdissi) and discovers the nature of their secret romantic relationship. The very next morning, they all receive word that the Bledsoe patriarch has unexpectedly passed, prompting a road trip home for the funeral that Wally decides to crash.
The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020 before being picked up by Amazon Studios later that year. It also features Judy Greer, Stephen Root, Steve Zahn, Lois Smith and Margo Martindale in supporting roles.
Tropes present:
- The Alcoholic: Frank has a history of substance abuse and violently relapses over the course of the movie.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: Averted. Bruce tries to make a move on Frank at the very beginning, which Frank shoots down hard due to being happily committed to Wally.
- The Atoner: Frank spent his adult life regretting the words he said to his youthful lover that ultimately drive him to suicide.
- The Beard: Charlotte, a female friend of Frank's, pretends to be his girlfriend, along with his partner Wally's, so their families won't know that they're really gay.
- Be Yourself: The movie's key point, as despite Frank's encouragement to his niece, he's spent his whole life lying to his family about who he is.
- Driven to Suicide: We find out that Frank's first lover as a boy was driven this far.
- Evil Old Folks: The way that Daddy Mac is introduced leaves little interpretation that he psychologically scars children around him. He proves himself to be a genuine antagonist by the movie's end, bringing his oldest son to a mental breakdown after outing him as homosexual in his will.
- Forced Out of the Closet: In a particularly cruel move by Frank's father, he not only leaves Frank completely out of the will, but he directly calls out his "perversion towards men" as the reason why, effectively outing his son at his own wake.
- Gayngst-Induced Suicide: Sam, who Frank began seeing when he was younger, drowned himself after Frank, motivated by his father's scorn, told him that they could no longer see each other because being gay was "perverted."
- Hereditary Homosexuality: Discussed when Frank's mother tells him his great uncle was also gay, and speculates that if curly hair can be inherited, then why not this too.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Frank's father was disgusted at his sexuality, even spiting him in his will with a final denunciation. Wally also mentions he can't live in Saudi Arabia, because men or even teenage boys caught having sex there are often beheaded or hanged.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Despite their distance, Frank's family assure him that Daddy Mac truly did love him despite his coldness. If he did, it must've been buried fucking deep, because Mac leaves no fortune to his son and outs him in his will as a "pervert."
- Late Coming Out: Frank is 46 by the time he's outed to his family.
- Road Trip Plot: The first half of the movie involves the trip back down to South Carolina with Frank, Wally and Beth.
- Single Tear: Daddy Mac cries a very angry one of these after telling his son to stop seeing Sam, not once looking him in the eye.
- Transparent Closet: Frank's mother says she knew already that he was gay when he's outed, chalking this up to maternal intuition.
- Twofer Token Minority: Wally, Frank's partner, is a gay Muslim Saudi Arab.
