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Train Dreams

Train Dreams

Drama · 2025

A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.

Movie details

Train Dreams

“The extraordinary story of an ordinary life.”

2025 Drama 1h 42m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.3 / 10

Community rating

A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Train Dreams?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Drama · 1939

An intellectually disabled giant and his level headed guardian find work at a sadistic cowboy's ranch in depression era America.

East of Eden

East of Eden

Drama · 1955

In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Drama · 1972

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

The Long, Hot Summer

The Long, Hot Summer

Drama · 1958

Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.

Sarah's Oil

Sarah's Oil

Drama · 2025

Sarah Rector, a Black girl born in early 20th-century Oklahoma Indian Territory, believes there is oil beneath the barren land she’s allotted, and her faith proves right. As greedy oil sharks close in, Sarah turns to family, friends, and some Texas wildcatters to maintain control of her oil-rich land, eventually becoming among the nation's first Black female millionaires—at eleven years old.

Good One

Good One

Drama · 2024

On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Drama · 2023

Harold Fry is an unremarkable man who has made mistakes with all the important things: being a husband, a father and a friend. And now, well into his 60s, he is content to fade quietly into the background of life. Until, one day – Harold learns his old friend Queenie is dying. Harold leaves home, walking to his post office to send her a letter. And out of the blue, Harold decides to keep walking, all the way to her hospice, 450 miles away.

Westward the Women

Westward the Women

Western · 1951

There's a deficit of good, honest women in the West, and Roy Whitman wants to change that. His solution is to bring a caravan of over 100 mail-order brides from Chicago to California. It will be a long, difficult and dangerous journey for the women. So Whitman hires hardened, cynical Buck Wyatt to be their guide across the inhospitable frontier. But as disaster strikes on the trail, Buck just might discover that these women are stronger than he thinks.

The River

The River

Drama · 1984

Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.

True Grit

True Grit

Western · 1969

The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy on a mission of 'justice', which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, 'Rooster' Cogburn because he has 'true grit', and a reputation of getting the job done.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Clint Bentley

Written by

Clint Bentley · Greg Kwedar

Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton

Robert Grainier

Felicity Jones

Felicity Jones

Gladys Grainier

Nathaniel Arcand

Nathaniel Arcand

Ignatius Jack

Clifton Collins Jr.

Clifton Collins Jr.

Boomer

John Diehl

John Diehl

Billy

Paul Schneider

Paul Schneider

Apostle Frank

Kerry Condon

Kerry Condon

Claire Thompson

Court is in session

Put Train Dreams on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.