I knew nothing of this film going in, which is something of a rare treat for me. At it’s core Uncle Frank is a coming out story from writer and director Alan Ball, famous for American Beauty (1999) and True Blood (2008–2014).
Haunted by trauma and huge piles of guilt, a gay man closeted to most of his family, in the early years of the nineteen-seventies, returns to his ultra conservative homestead after the sudden death of his father.
It’s clever in that it frames the subject with a flush of optimism, encapsulated by the rebellious niece who looks up to her uncle Frank.
If I were to say it’s charm comes with a vicious left right combination, you can clench your guts for the emotional battering you’re about to receive.
Darrin // Nightingale 