Tag: Pacific Northwest

Train Dreams

2025   Netflix

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  42min

Drama

Directed by:  Clint Bentley

Starring:  Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Kerry Condon and William H. Macy.

The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Life

Train Dreams is a quiet, emotional drama that follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a logger and railroad worker trying to build a simple life in the rough forests of the American Northwest in the early 1900s. He spends his days doing dangerous manual labor for the growing railroad, then returns to a small cabin where he lives with his loving wife Gladys (Felicity Jones) and their young daughter, hoping to give them a stable future as the modern world starts to creep in.​​

Early in the film, Robert is involved in an ugly incident when a Chinese laborer is falsely accused of theft, an event that plants a sense of guilt and unease in him that never quite goes away. As he keeps taking on risky jobs in logging and construction, the film shows how the railroad, dynamite work led by explosives expert Arn Peeples (William H. Macy), and the spread of industry slowly change the land and the people who depend on it. Robert’s work constantly pulls him away from home, hinting that the world he wants to protect is always at risk.​

A terrible wildfire eventually tears through the valley where his cabin stands, wiping out almost everything and leaving Robert unsure of what happened to Gladys and their child. In the aftermath, he wanders between logging camps and small towns, crossing paths with fellow worker Boomer (Clifton Collins Jr.) and a practical, observant forestry services worker named Claire Thompson (Kerry Condon), who is stationed in a lonely lookout tower watching for future fires. These encounters show him different ways people cope with loss, change, and the harshness of frontier life.​

As years pass, Robert grows older and more isolated, still haunted by memories of his family, the Chinese laborer, and the relentless advance of trains and highways through the wilderness. The movie follows him through small but powerful moments, watching new bridges go up, seeing modern machines arrive, and trying to find peace in the natural world around his cabin, until his life becomes a kind of quiet reflection on love, regret, and survival in a country racing toward progress. Train Dreams keeps the story simple and grounded, focusing more on feelings and atmosphere than big plot twists, making it a gentle but moving character study.

Director Clint Bentley brings together powerful storytelling, breathtaking visuals, and deeply human performances that connect on an emotional level. Joel Edgerton delivers a career-best performance, making the character of Robert Grainier feel completely real and relatable, while supporting actors like Felicity Jones and William H. Macy also shine in their roles. The cinematography immerses you in the natural world of the American West, capturing sunsets, forests, and campfires with an almost poetic touch. The music, composed by Bryce Dessner, adds to the movie’s gentle atmosphere, enhancing the emotions without trying to force them.

What really sets Train Dreams apart is its ability to depict the everyday dignity of ordinary people and the ways our lives are shaped by encounters and changes, both big and small. It’s a film that’s both intimate and mythic, it captures a sense of time passing and memories building up, something most movies rarely pull off this elegantly.​

Ultimately, Train Dreams stands out because it is deeply honest, visually striking, and lets you truly step into Robert’s shoes, making it not just one of the best movies on Netflix this year, but a memorable, quietly rewarding experience that stays with you long after the credits roll. As Bobby would say:

Highly Recommended!

Turn off the lights and devices,

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This Movie

on NETFLIX!

New Movie Train Dreams Debuts on Netflix Friday November 21, 2025

New Movie Train Dreams Debuts on Netflix Friday November 21, 2025

Train Dreams Is the Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Life

Joel Edgerton stars in the moving film from director Clint Bentley based on the Novella by Denis Johnson. Train Dreams premieres on Netflix Friday November 21, 2025.

FROM NETFLIX TUDUM:

Based on the beloved novella by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier (Edgerton), whose life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th-century America. Orphaned at a young age, Robert grows into adulthood among the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he helps expand the nation’s railroad empire alongside men as unforgettable as the landscapes they inhabit. After a tender courtship, he marries Gladys (Jones) and they build a home together, though his work often takes him far from her and their young daughter. When his life takes an unexpected turn, Robert finds beauty, brutality, and newfound meaning for the forests and trees he has felled.

An ode to a vanishing way of life, an ever-evolving world, and to the extraordinary possibilities that exist within even the most simple of existences, Train Dreams captures a time and place that are now long gone, and the people who built a bridge to a future they could only dream of. Directed by Academy Award nominee Clint Bentley with a screenplay by Bentley and Academy Award nominee Greg Kwedar, the writing team behind Sing Sing, the film also stars Academy Award nominees William H. Macy and Kerry Condon.

Train Dreams

THE ORDER

2024   Amazon MGM Studios

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  55min

Action ~ Drama ~ Suspense

Directed by:  Justin Kurzel

Starring:  Jude Law,  Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver, and Marc Maron.

“Defeat…..NEVER……..Victory………FOREVER!”

Here is the synopsis from The Order Movie’s Official Website:

For over a year, a series of bold daylight bank robberies and armored car heists leaves law enforcement baffled and the public panicked throughout the Pacific Northwest. As the attacks become increasingly violent, FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) becomes convinced that the robberies are the work of domestic terrorists that plan to use the loot to finance an armed uprising against the U.S. government.

Based on a true story, The Order follows Husk and his team into the tangled world of white supremacists as they try to head off a violent uprising that could shatter the nation. As the militia builds a war chest of over $4 million, Husk pursues the malevolent racist Bob Mathews to a final bloody standoff that will go down in U.S. history.

Here’s what I think about that:

An absolutely horrifying look inside the workings and the mindset of a group of White Supremacists. It is also a deeper look into their beliefs and their Manifesto/Bible/Handbook The Turner Diaries. A 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, the founder and chairman of National Alliance, a white nationalist group, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. And also their willingness to do whatever is necessary to achieve their aims, even murder.

In a nutshell The Turner Diaries advocates extreme violence by any means necessary to achieve the means to overthrow the US Government. Then inciting a race war and ethnically cleansing America of any non-white peoples. Then using America’s Nuclear weapons on New York and Israel, allowing Arab countries to destroy what is left of Israel and the Israeli people. Then nuking Russia so a Russia-America Nuclear war destroys Americas cities and world civilization. To then be replaced by The All White Order.

There is a reckoning they call “The Day of The Rope” where the non-whites and anyone who has helped or aided them are all hanged in a single day. I recall the images of The Jan. 6th riots at the Capitol and seeing a platform with three rope nooses ready for the Vice President, Pelosi, etc.

Jesus…..this is very scary shit. Is America the new Germany? Is someone recently voted into power the new Adolf Hitler? Seriously….this is horrifying stuff. Not for the faint at heart. Some of you should just turn off the TV and go back to working in your gardens.

Here’s what I thought about the movie:

I thought it was good. Lots of action, drama and suspense. Robberies, murder, car chases and more as the FBI and the local police chase down members of The Order. As members of The Order are stalking the police, the FBI and anyone who is getting in their way of attempting to make The Turner Diaries a reality. Jude Law did a great job as the brooding FBI agent hell bent on stopping the insanity. Nicholas Hoult was eerily sinister hiding behind the all American boy façade of Bob Mathews while plotting America’s destruction. Tye Sheridan as the local police officer caught in a moral dilemna between right and loyalty to his hometown people.

I really thought all the actors did a great job, I liked it. I thought it was really good. Scary and eye-opening knowing it was a true story and that was forty years ago. It makes you worried about the future and what is to happen to America. Thank God for the men and women out their fighting the battles in our homeland we don’t get to see if someone doesn’t make a film out of it.

So yes I liked it, I recommend it.

But know what it is, a horrifying true look at White Supremacy in America.