Picture Credit: Netflix
Acquired by Netflix out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Train Dreams is the film adaptation of the beloved Denis Johnson novella of the same name that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Produced by Black Bear & Kamala Films, the film is the latest collaboration for writer/director Clint Bentley (Jockey) and co-writer Greg Kwedar, who received a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at last year’s Oscars for their work on the A24 prison drama Sing Sing.
Set in the Idaho panhandle during the turn of the 20th century, the story follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a logger & railroad worker by trade, who lives a quiet life of isolation, traveling to large timber jobs all over the Pacific Northwest.
In his early 30s, he meets and marries Gladys (Rogue One’s Felicity Jones), an unabashed, straightforward, yet delightful woman who relishes in Robert’s quiet charm. They have a child together, but he’s often pulled away on months-long projects many miles away multiple times a year, sacrificing time with his family and pulling him down into loneliness once more. Even when he tries to connect with workers on the job, many of them fall victim to the circumstances of their dangerous job or their life and times catching up with them. Feeling cursed as life takes away the things he holds dear one by one over his many decades, Robert is forced to find the beauty in what remains, survive his guilt, and engage with a rapidly changing world barreling towards industrialization.
Alongside Edgerton & Jones, the cast also includes: William H. Macy, Kerry Condon, Paul Schneider, Clifton Collins Jr., & Will Patton as the narrator.
Recently nominated for Best Feature Film & Best Adapted Screenplay by the Gotham Awards, Train Dreams aspires to be a major player for Netflix’s awards plans this upcoming season, and for good reason.
Train Dreams. William H. Macy as Arn Peeples in Train Dreams. Cr. Corey Castellano/BBP Train Dreams. LLC. © 2025.
The film is a beautifully haunting ode to the end of frontier life through the eyes of a man struggling with the isolation, loneliness, & remorse that the totality of his life’s decisions and rapid societal industrialization have rendered him.
In a perfect casting choice as Robert, Joel Edgerton sells everything on his sullen, expressive, feature-laden face; the longing, the sadness, the listlessness, & the self-condemnation of a survivor withering in a new dawn. A man who comes alive in the presence of his newly formed family only to leave them over and over to provide for their livelihood, leaving for a dangerous job that doesn’t fulfill him or give him the bonds or purpose he desperately seeks when he’s on his own. Was all that time away worth it for anyone involved? Was destroying nature corrupting his soul? Was he cursed for allowing his fellow workers to conduct racist acts of violence? The film is a culmination of Robert’s endurance of the punishing change in society as he never quite thrives for the advancement of others.
The pacing and beautiful cinematography make every bit of the 100-minute runtime count. Breathtaking views of the expansive forestry of the Pacific Northwest capture the beauty as well as the remoteness & solitude. It’s a film that thrives on atmosphere & contemplation as much as its real life fears and actions. The film moves in a similar way to a lot of the work of Terrence Malick or the more isolated scenes of Michael Sarnoski’s Pig; awash in our connections to nature but forced there by grief.
Train Dreams. (L-R) Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier and Kerry Condon as Claire Thompson in Train Dreams. Cr. BBP Train Dreams. LLC. © 2025.
The story also features such positive female characters in a time period that didn’t value them as much as they should. Felicity Jones as Robert’s wife Gladys & Kerry Condon (F1, The Banshees of Inisherin) as the fellow grief stricken widow Claire are given space to show their skill, vision, & ambition without giving in to societal pressure, despair, or a need for protection.
Train Dreams is one of Netflix’s strongest films of 2025. With a good start at the Gothams and a film that continues to impress at film festivals around the world, Train Dreams may make their dreams come true with a trip to the Oscars stage.
Watch Train Dreams If You Like
- Days of Heaven
- Boyhood
- Pig
- Jockey
- Sing Sing
MVP of Train Dreams
Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier
For over two decades, Aussie import Edgerton has impressed international audiences with his incredible range, versatility, & emotionality. He can be tender as much as he can be explosive. He has a pain behind his eyes that makes him perfect as the heart & soul of your film and Train Dreams is no different.
With Robert Grainier, Edgerton draws you in as a gruff yet vulnerable frontiersman who longs for purpose & stability in a punishing period of American life. To be so quiet yet so impactful speaks to how powerful his presence & features are at the center of your frame. You can’t do much better casting than Edgerton for this moody film that engages on subtlety.
A methodical, haunting, & poetic examination of life, love, & grief at the end of frontier life into the 20th century. Edgerton, Jones, & Condon make every scene count for Oscar-nominated writers Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar.
