Culture Crash: Train Dreams Is Netflix’s Newest Cinematic Masterpiece

The new film Train Dreams, which is now streaming on Netflix, is a powerful meditation on the American dream, life in the early 1900s, and grief. The film is based on a novella of the same name by Denis Johnson; it revels in the visual splendor of the Pacific Northwest and settles in to document the fictional life of character Robert Grainier, a railroad worker and logger looking to make a way for his family and himself.

The film was shot in just 29 days, but director Clint Bentley made the most of his time, and his film features a stunning turn from lead actor Joel Edgerton and some of the most beautiful cinematography of the year courtesy of director of photography Adolpho Veloso. After making its premier at the Sundance Film Festival, Train Dreams was quickly acquired for distribution by Netflix, a double-edged sword for a small arthouse drama. On the one hand, Netflix helps ensure a small movie like this gets seen on a global stage, but on the other, the lack of a proper theatrical release means most viewers won’t get to see the beautiful cinematography on the grandest of scales.

No matter how you see the movie, though, Train Dreams is a beautiful character study about life in another time, and the human emotions that transcend time periods and settings all together. Intimate and emotional while still sweeping and epic, Train Dreams is one of the best films of 2025.