Train Dreams

Train Dreams, based on the novella by Denis Johnson, is a deeply moving, lyrical and intelligent film about pain, loss, time, beauty and connection. Blessed with a stand out cast, featuring William H Macy, Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, and more, the film is nominally about the life of a logger in the Pacific Northwest from the turn of the 20th century onward.

Yet, as with so many great films it is about much more. The photography by Adolpho Veloso is lush, clear and evocative without ever being distracting. This is a film that remembers what color looks like. His compositions are clear, sometimes painterly and always perfectly framed.  As directed by Clint Bentley, who co-wrote the film with Greg Kwedar-the same writers who did 2024’s underrated Sing Sing-the film is both original and reminiscent of the work of many others.

There are obvious hints of Malick, but also of David Lowry and Andrew Dominik, particularly Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Yet, this is not a film that regurgitates what others did prior. Instead, it takes a slim volume and creates a sweeping epic of emotions and philosophical ambition that never loses sight of the characters, and their place in the world they inhabit.

Courtesy Netflix

That world is something else. While much of the film takes place outside, what is shot on sound stages are ones where you can smell the earthen floors and the smoky fires burning beneath the chimney. In its own way, it recreates a period and a passage of time in ways films like The Leopard also succeeded in doing, though on different scales. The music, by Bryce Dessner, is fitting and never intrusive. The title song, by Nick Cave, which plays over the end credits, may give you goosebumps.

Edgerton, a fine actor with a long track record, has never been better than he is here, where with every movement, look and tone, a fully developed character and emotion emerges. His Robert Grainier is intensely human, a man who wants to work, be with his family and yet has a drive taking him elsewhere. The events of the film, as in life itself, get in the way, complicating things in ways big and small, grave and ridiculous. Robert is a character who is both fully fleshed and a person on whom a viewer can occasionally graft their own thoughts, feelings and aspirations.

Robert is also the only fully fleshed character given any lengthy screentime. While every character has depth, some of the best ones are only very briefly encountered. Given the film covers many decades, and traces an entire and very long life, this is not surprising. It is also something that, in lesser hands, would be a huge drawback. Here, each vivid character acts like a memory, be they a wise old explosives expert or a kind forestry worker. This helps one feel the passage of time.

Courtesy Netflix

Train Dreams is a film that may not appeal to a wide audience, and ultimately, a film one should go into as cold as possible, and experience it for themselves.  It is, in essence, as much about the end of the mythical “west” as Unforgiven or The Wild Bunch, and just as clear eyed about what really happened. Except, in this film, the decades long repercussions are seen playing out, with Robert bearing witness to a world passing him by. He is us, caught up in history, unable to stop its flow, awed by the ways the world has changed, and saddened by what he has lost. Yet, this powerfully emotional film has not just one of the years best lead performances, and the most gorgeous scenery in a 2025 film, but one of the most mature and incisive scripts about how we see ourselves and what the world really thinks of us. Herzog might smile at this one. Do not miss it.

TRAIN DREAMS will be streaming on Netflix on Friday, November 21st