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Uncle Frank

Uncle Frank

2020

Alan Ball

Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi, Steve Zahn ...

6.8

3,780

Drama In 1973, when 18-year-old Beth and her uncle Frank take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch’s funeral, they’re unexpectedly joined by Frank’s lover Walid. A story about family, forgiveness, and our inherent power to choose who we want to be.

	Author	Review
United States	Dennis Harvey Variety	"Well-cast and gracefully handled, this is a nuanced plea for loving acceptance that should appeal to a fairly broad audience, even if it does lay on the tearful melodramatics pretty thick in the last lap."	POS
United States	Leslie Felperin The Hollywood Reporter	"This shabbily constructed work feels way too thirsty for audience love as it strings together a series of life-affirming (...) and sometimes embarrassingly anachronistic moments that feel too unconnected to satisfy as a drama."	NEG
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"While there are a few truly moving detours along the way (...) [It] fumbles through its fairy-tale finale so fast that it sours everything that came before"	NEU
United States	Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"There are some decent, earnest performances in here, but they’re difficult to see through all the clichés, spread out in front of you like you’re playing melodrama bingo."	NEG
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"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 (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Ben Kenigsberg The New York Times	"Alan Ball combines several overworked genres — the coming-of-age picture, the road-trip odyssey, the angst-filled family-reunion movie — and mostly steers clear of the obvious pitfalls."	POS
United States	Gary Goldstein Los Angeles Times	"A finely acted, often deeply emotional period piece that, despite its share of strong moments, stacks the deck too much for its own dramatic good."	NEU
United Kingdom	Ben Travis Empire	"Its mix of coming-of-age and homecoming stories doesn’t fully gel, but Uncle Frank is a funny and entertaining road movie with likeable performances (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Allison Shoemaker AV Club	"It’s saccharine, lazy, and self-satisfied. Still, it might not seem so utterly divorced from reality were it not for the rich character study it subsumes."	NEU
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"Alan Ball has a knack for likable characters and feel-good sentiment. But there’s a slickness that tends to undercut the emotionally fraught scenario: everything’s a little too polished and familiar to really resonate."	NEU

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