The ‘gorgeous’ drama with 95% on Rotten Tomatoes now on Netflix | Films | Entertainment

A beautiful new drama is on Netflix after getting 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and has two Golden Globe nominations. Train Dreams is a 2025 American drama directed by Clint Bentley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Greg Kwedar, based on the 2011 novella by Denis Johnson. 

The film stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Kerry Condon and William H. Macy. Train Dreams is the portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly changing America of the early 20th Century.

The film received critical acclaim, with praise going to Bentley’s direction and Edgerton’s performance. Among its accolades, the film was named as one of the top 10 films of 2025 by both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. At the upcoming Golden Globes, Edgerton has been nominated for Best Actor and the song, Train Dreams by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner, has been nominated for Best Original Song. The film has also been nominated for five Critics’ Choice Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and four Film Independent Spirit Awards.

RogerEbert.com called it “a film of echoes” and a “birth-to-death character study”, with Edgerton doing “the best work of his remarkable career to date”.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 193 critics’ reviews are positive. The website’s consensus reads: “A gorgeous meditation on America, ably shouldered by one of Joel Edgerton’s very best performances, Train Dreams takes on mythic proportions while maintaining an intimate emotional delicacy.”

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 88 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”.

Awards Radar said: “Train Dreams moved me far more than I expected it to. I still can’t quite put my finger on what it’s doing that knocked me back like it did, but that’s the nature of great cinema.

“Sometimes, a film can hit you in a way you don’t even understand. This is one such example. Few movies this year are quieter than this one, though few have as loud an impact on your heart and soul.”

Viewers took to Reddit to discuss the film. One said: “This is one of those movies that makes you sit in silence for a few minutes after finishing it. It’s so powerful and looks absolutely incredible.”

Another said: “To me it’s a small, quiet story that deals with the most important questions of life. It’s all there: Abandonment, love, joy, heartbreak, hope. Everything in this perfect little quiet package of a movie. I’m surprised they’ll still make movies like this, but happy they do.”

Train Dreams is available on Netflix.