2026 Sundance Film Festival Movie Review: Frank & Louis

Petra Biondian Volpe’s Frank & Louis is one of the most disappointing movies I’ve seen at the Sundance Film Festival because of its unoriginality. The film takes place in a prison and follows Frank (Kingsley Ben-Adir), a man in jail for life for a murder her committed when he was younger. He gets a job caring for aging inmates with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Frank is tasked with looking after Louis (Rob Morgan), who used to be a big-time gang leader but is quickly losing his mind. 

This premise is the most interesting part of the film. The entire film is prison movie 101. Frank has a parole hearing coming up, and he is hoping it goes well so he can be free. If you’ve seen any prison movies made in the last twenty years, you can predict relatively quickly how that’s going to go. He seems nice and calm on the outside, but there is an anger deep inside that comes out every once in a while, keeping us on edge that perhaps Frank isn’t as changed as he seems. There is another inmate who wants to get revenge on Louis for something he did to his brother. You never know when he’s going to be around Louis, but you know a violent altercation will ensue. 

And, of course, Frank & Louis is about the unexpected bond between two inmates. Both men are hard-headed criminals, and neither wants to waver. There is a long period of the two not getting along, bickering back and forth, and almost getting into fights. Louis still believes he can live life the way he always has, which leads to frustrating moments for him when Frank offers to put on his shoes for him or helps him clean up, simple tasks he refuses to accept he cannot do anymore. I never bought into them becoming friends or casual with each other. It just felt like Louis slipped into a deeper dementia state, and that was the only way the two could work together. Ben-Adir and Morgan are both excellent actors, but their skills aren’t properly utilized here.

I found the idea of inmates caring for older inmates with dementia compelling, and I wish that were the main focus of the movie. It was interesting seeing a Hispanic prisoner try to care for a large, bald Nazi with a swastika tattooed on his arm after the Nazi called him a racial slur. It was interesting seeing some of the inmates bond with their sick inmate to the point where they get upset when they would have to give their patient to hospice care, never to be seen again. It’s a shame Frank & Louis didn’t focus solely on this aspect of the film and instead felt the need to make a formulaic prison film we have seen dozens of times before.

Frank & Louis played in the Premieres category at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

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