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Train Dreams (2025)

Directed by Clint Bentley · 102 min

A quiet, beautifully shot meditation on a life. The first hour is the stronger half, but it stays with you.

Matt Ward

4.5/5

Jeff Ward

4.5/5

Discussed on Episode 2: Our Top 5 Pixar Movies, Arrival Revisited & Train Dreams · Jump to 27:21

Matt

Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier, a logger in the early 1900s who clears forests and lays railroad track across America. He is in nearly every scene, and it is quiet acting of the kind Edgerton does so well. Matt loved the first hour or so. The last thirty minutes shift gears and feel a little long. What stayed with him was Robert waiting his whole life for an "aha" moment that explains why things happened, and never quite finding it. He's a sucker for films that stick with you emotionally and make you think about your own life, and this one does.

Jeff

Jeff calls it the most beautiful movie of the year from a cinematography standpoint. He agrees the first hour is more engaging than the second, and wonders whether that's intentional, since life tends to slow down too. The part that stuck with him was that life only started to make sense for Robert at the very end. It's a bit of a tragedy, and he couldn't stop thinking about it afterward.

It's streaming on Netflix.

Family movie night

A few violent moments, including one rough scene, though most of the violence stays off screen.