The new Amazon feature, “Uncle Frank,” has the distinct honor of being one of the only breakout festival films of the entire year. Sure, that’s mainly because the film played at this year’s Sundance, which is one of the only fests to actually happen according to plan all year. But also, the film broke out because it’s actually really good. And even though the rest of the world is currently on fire, Amazon is still planning on releasing “Uncle Frank” later this year.
As a way to announce the upcoming Prime Video release of “Uncle Frank,” Amazon went ahead and shared a clip from the feature, which showcases the two leads of the film, Paul Bettany and Sophia Lillis. And though you may be used to hearing Bettany’s very British voice in the Marvel Studios films, the actor is putting on a decidedly different accent for “Uncle Frank,” displaying his command of the deep Southern drawl.
In the film, Bettany plays the title character, a gay man that is living in secret in the early 1970s. He’s joined by his niece, Beth (Lillis), who visits him while studying at NYU. However, both Frank and Beth have to leave New York to go back to his small hometown to confront his family during his father’s funeral.
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“Uncle Frank” is set to arrive on Amazon Prime Video this Thanksgiving. You can watch the clip below.
Here’s the synopsis:
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.