Uncle Frank

Uncle Frank (2020) is Alan Ball's road-trip drama, and you can watch online on iFILM. It's 1973, and eighteen-year-old Beth's beloved uncle drives her from New York back down South for her grandfather's funeral, a man Frank spent his whole life dreading.

Beth always sensed her literature-professor uncle kept part of himself shut away. On the road to Creekville, South Carolina, the truth comes out: Walid, Frank's longtime partner whom the family has never met, is quietly following behind them. The closer they get to the small town, the heavier Frank grows, as old wounds, shame, and the memory of a father who never accepted him rise to the surface. Paul Bettany plays Frank with raw restraint, Sophia Lillis is his open-hearted niece, and Peter Macdissi plays Walid.

Ball, the writer behind American Beauty and Six Feet Under, returns to his familiar terrain of family, secrets, and the cost of honesty. It's a gentle, deeply human film that hits harder than its modest road-movie setup suggests. Stream Uncle Frank (2020) online on iFILM.