Trailer Released For Queer Comedy-Drama “Uncle Frank” Starring Paul Bettany & Sophia Lillis

Amazon Studios has released the first official trailer for Alan Ball’s queer comedy-drama titled Uncle Frank. The upcoming film stars Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Judy Greer, and Peter Macdissi.

Uncle Frank premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film festival and was later picked up by Amazon Studios. It was written and directed by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty). According to reports, this movie serves as Ball’s semi-autobiography about growing in the South back during the 1970s. The lead role of Frank Bledsoe, a gay man, is played by Paul Bettany. 

The description from Amazon Prime Video’s YouTube channel reads:

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.

As someone who has grown tired of almost every old-timey movie having tear-filled queer narratives with sad endings, I’m glad the trailer showed that Uncle Frank will be different. I’m already a fan of Wally. He’s a keeper.

Now, yes, I know I have talked a lot about how non-members of the LGBTQ+ community shouldn’t always be cast in queer roles. In my opinion, if a cis-het actor is a part of a project, I would like said project to feature queer talent in some capacity to balance things out.

We did an entire webcast about this subject.

Coming to this particular film, you should know that (writer/director) Alan Ball is a member of the queer community and so is Macdissi (Wally). Macdissi and Ball are also partners. So, yay.     

Uncle Frank will be made available by Amazon Studios on November 25, 2020.

I will definitely be checking it out.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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