Paul Bettany & Sophia Lillis in Trailer for ‘Uncle Frank’ Road Trip Film

“You rented a car?!” “Isn’t it snazzy!” Amazon has released an official trailer for Alan Ball’s new film Uncle Frank, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It also stopped by the Deauville, Atlanta, Mill Valley, and Savannah Film Festivals throughout this year. Writer-director Alan Ball’s heartfelt and hilarious road movie travels from the bohemian scene of post-Stonewall New York City to rural South Carolina, following Frank’s journey from hitting rock bottom to acceptance and forgiveness and, finally, reintegration into his family and into life itself. Paul Bettany reveals Frank’s fragile core by peeling away the layers of Frank’s sophisticated but guarded persona. Sophia Lillis plays Beth as a naive but observant young woman whose eyes are opened to a world she could never have imagined. Peter Macdissi also has a standout performance as Wally. The full cast includes Stephen Root, Margo Martindale, Steve Zahn, Judy Greer, and Lois Smith. This looks really good! No surprise, with this superb cast giving us their all.

Here’s the first official trailer (+ poster) for Alan Ball’s Uncle Frank, direct from Amazon’s YouTube:

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. Uncle Frank is both written and directed by American producer / filmmaker Alan Ball, his second feature after directing the film Towelhead previously. Produced by Alan Ball, Bill Block, Michael Costigan, Peter Macdissi, Stephanie Meurer, and Jay Van Hoy. This initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Amazon debuts Ball’s Uncle Frank streaming on Prime Video starting November 25th, for Thanksgiving, this fall.