Beautiful, ain’t it?
Clint Bentley’s life-spanning historical drama “Train Dreams” will release on Netflix in November. On Wednesday, the streaming service unveiled a new trailer for the film, giving fans another look at the decades-long story of life and death starring Joel Edgerton.
Time keeps chugging along in “Train Dreams,” whether Edgerton’s Robert Grainier wants it to or not. Robert is a logger, tasked with constructing railroads across the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the century. There’s nothing extraordinary about Robert’s life, though he wishes it would slow down enough for him to sit with the ordinary — primarily, to spend more time with his wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones), and their young child in between working expeditions.
As Robert’s life constantly ping pongs between too-short stays at home and too-long trips of labor, he starts to find himself a victim of change. Technological advancement, local tragedy and an ever-evolving world threaten the slices of peace he’s carved out for himself. As the world becomes more modern by the second, Robert wonders if he will get left behind.
You can watch the trailer below.
Bentley wrote and directed “Train Dreams,” adapting Denis Johnson’s novella of the same name. Bentley collaborated on the screenplay with Greg Kwedar. Bentley and Kwedar most recently worked together on the critical darling “Sing Sing” — another adaptation they co-wrote, but that Kwedar directed.
Edgerton stars in almost every scene of “Train Dreams,” and has been hailed for his quiet performance that was quickly deemed one of his best. Joining him and Jones in the cast are Kerry Condon, Nathaniel Arcand and a particularly emotional William H. Macy.
“At times, the quiet tranquility of the natural world is interrupted by the thunderous falling of trees — and ‘Train Dreams’ ponders whether this is bad for the soul in a fireside monologue by a wonderful William H. Macy, who comes in and steals the film in every scene he gets,” Chase Hutchinson wrote for TheWrap in a Sundance review. “The moments of destruction land like blows, punching you in the gut and, later in the film, turning the terror of a raging fire into an agonizing, primal scream. The life and loss on display does not just belong to Robert, who remains haunted by ghosts that are captured in strikingly evocative nightmares. No, this film is about the big picture of existence itself and finding our place in it.”
“Train Dreams” will release in theaters Nov. 7 and premieres on Netflix Nov. 21.
Everything New on Netflix in October