TRAIN DREAMS – (L-R) Gladys Oakley (Felicity Jones) and Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton). Cr: Courtesy of Netflix
It was a quiet Sundance for Netflix, although the streamer did come away with the rights to release Train Dreams, which is scheduled to premiere globally in the Fall of 2025, presumably with a view for the film to be one of Netflix’s chances to scoop a big award for the 2026 Awards campaign.
Robert Grainier, a day laborer working on America’s railroads at the turn of the 20th century, is the center of this romance drama. The film follows his life as he experiences profound love, shocking defeats, and a world irrevocably transforming before his eyes. It’s an adaptation of the Denis Johnson novel, which first began as a story published in The Paris Review in 2002 before being released as a full book in 2011.
The movie comes from director Clint Bentley, who has produced, written, and directed several films and shorts. Other credits include directing and producing the 2021 movie Jockey, Transpecos, Dakota, and 9 Races. He also co-wrote the film alongside Greg Kwedar, who are both just coming off the campaigning circuit for the Oscar-nominated movie Sing Sing, starring Colman Domingo, with the pair serving as producers.
Speaking about the film with IndieWire, Bentley said, “I’ve been a Dennis Johnson fan since college for many years, and Train Dreams was actually the first book I read. It was such a miracle of a book that then I was like, I have to read everything by this person.” Bentley said he originally didn’t know if he would be directing and that the producers ultimately asked him to take on the role. “There were so many things that excited me about it cinematically… about just like, what is our place in the world? And, you know, when you die, looking back, what’s actually important? Our relationship to nature and things like that.”
Who is in the cast for Train Dreams?
Pictures: Getty Images / IMDb
- Joel Edgerton (The Gift, Loving, Netflix’s The Stranger) as Robert Grainier
- Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Netflix’s The Midnight Sky) as Gladys Grainier
- William H. Macy (Shameless, Fargo) as Arn Peeples
- Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin, Better Call Saul)
- Alfred Hsing (The Book of Bobba Fett) as Fu Sheng
- Clifton Collins Jr. (Star Trek) as Boomer
- Will Patton (Yellowstone) as Narrator
Speaking about the film, Joel Egerton has said he read the book years ago and had once considered acquiring the rights to the novella but found out the rights were unavailable. The project landed on his door as if by fate. “Years later, I get an email about being involved in the film as an actor, and it felt like someone knew the inner workings of my brain.” The actor then praised the work of Bentley and Kwedar adapting the movie saying, “These guys had done such a wonderful job of doing quite a challenging transition from the novella to a screenplay, given that the story spans such a massive breadth of time in one man’s life. So I was just I was very eager for the moment that I was contacted about it. And everything that happened afterwards just felt like the right step forward.”
What did the critics say about Train Dreams?
Because the movie has already technically released and reviews were not under embargo, we already know what some of the top voices think about the drama. As it stands right now, the movie holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes with 36 reviews.
The Playlist’s Marshall Shaffer said in their review, giving the film an A-, “A good film captures merely a life. A great film like Train Dreams encompasses an entire way of life. Bentley’s modest, moving epic of the common man is a thing of rare beauty.”
Bilge Ebiri for New York Magazine similarly praised the film: “Through Edgerton’s subtly tormented performance, Patton’s narration, Adolpho Veloso’s rapturous cinematography, and a quavering score by Bryce Dessner, the film draws us into Grainier’s sad, inexpressible longing for peace and purpose.”
This is one of two confirmed pickups that Netflix made at the Sundance Film Festival for 2025. Netflix was reportedly bidding on the Selena Quintanilla documentary, although it’s unconfirmed whether that’s completed at the time of writing. The other pick-up was the documentary The Perfect Neighbor, directed by Geeta Gandbhir and scheduled for a 2025 release. Netflix has been regularly buying Sundance docs and films for over a decade now. Pickups in recent years include Ibelin and It’s What’s Inside from 2024, and in 2023, it acquired Run Rabbit Run, Fair Play, and The Deepest Breath.
For more on what’s still to come throughout the remainder of 2025, keep it locked here on What’s on Netflix.
Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, and Michael Heimler serve as producers. Joel Edgerton, Scott Hinckley, Greg Kwedar, and John Friedberg are executive producers on Train Dreams.
Picture: Getty Images
Will you be watching Train Dreams on Netflix when it launches in Fall 2025? Let us know in the comments.
