PNW Awards: Train Dreams
October 29, 2025
Seattle Film Critics Society Pacific Northwest Awards
Set in the Pacific Northwest during the first decades of the 20th century, director Clint Bentley’s beguiling adaptation of Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson’s novella stars Joel Edgerton as a humble labourer immersed in a rapidly changing world of natural splendour and voracious industry.
Tickets
Select showtime for pricing, tickets, and reserved seating selection (see floor plan).
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
“The state of Washington has always been one of the most beautiful, if tragically underutilized, places in the world to shoot a film, but rarely has it looked quite as movingly magnificent as it does in Train Dreams. A Western epic of breathtaking visual splendor and formidable lyrical cinematic poetry, it’s a work containing all the wondrous, devastating layers of an entire life, which it explores with a gentle grace without hiding from the agony that comes with it.” —Chase Hutchinson, TheWrap
Set in the Pacific Northwest during the early decades of the 20th century, Train Dreams is a captivating character study that unfolds in a world of natural splendor and voracious industry. Adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, and shot in Washington State, the latest from director Clint Bentley (Jockey) features an exquisite lead performance by Joel Edgerton, alongside memorable supporting turns from Oscar nominees Felicity Jones and William H. Macy.
Robert Grainier (Edgerton) is a taciturn laborer with a knack for stumbling upon scenes of awe and horror. His work in the logging industry and the construction of rail bridges throughout Idaho and Washington finds him bearing witness to marvels of engineering — and to the horrendous treatment of Chinese immigrant workers at the hands of peers and superiors alike. Robert finds quietude and solace in his marriage to Gladys (Jones), the forging of their modest rural home, and the birth of their daughter. But work pulls Robert away from his loved ones, while the suspicion that he is subject to some obscure curse follows him through his days and haunts his dreams.
Scripted by Bentley and frequent collaborator Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing, SIFF 2024), Train Dreams stays true to Johnson’s penchant for conjuring strangeness and wonder. Elegant voiceover narration from the great Will Patton helps to illuminate the inarticulate Robert’s responses to the mixture of eerie phenomena and dizzying progress that surrounds him. This is a beguiling film about getting swept into the current of incomprehensible change.
- Director: Clint Bentley
- Principal Cast: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy
- Country: USA
- Year: 2025
- Running Time: 102 min.
- Producer: Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, Michael Heimler
- Screenplay: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
- Cinematographers: Adolpho Veloso
- Editors: Parker Laramie
- Music: Bryce Dessner
- Filmography: Jockey (2022), Sing Sing (2024)
- Language: English
- US Distributor: Netflix
- International Sales: Black Bear Pictures