Train Dreams: VIFF 2025
United States of America | Clint Bentley | English | 102 minutes
There’s a strain of American pastoral cinema that found a patron saint in Terrence Malick and talismans in the solemn reveries of Badlands and Days of Heaven. Train Dreams belongs to this tradition, and it’s a thing of beauty. Based on the novella by Denis Johnson and set in the Pacific Northwest during the first half of the last century, the film stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grenier, a lumberjack returning logging camps season after season. As the years roll on, Robert finds a wife in Gladys (Felicity Jones), but also hardship and tragedy as the railroads stretch out and the country grows old (or maybe it’s just the face in the mirror).
Director Clint Bentley (Jockey) has made a subtle, ruminative film about the fleeting encounters and foundational relationships that mark a character and eventually constitute a life. With an evocative score by Bryce Dessner of The National and a string of memorable cameos, the movie seems simple but builds an emotional undertow, and Cascadia has rarely looked so luminous on screen.
Friday, October 10
3:00 pm
Tickets HERE
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VIFF thanks the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations for their continued stewardship of the unceded and occupied land on which our work takes place. As an organization founded and predominantly directed by settlers and immigrants, we understand our responsibility to seek out and build authentic relationships with Indigenous communities, and to allow this ongoing dialogue to influence our practices. As part of this process, we remain committed to collaborating with and supporting Indigenous artists, filmmakers, curators, and audiences.
- Budget$10,000,000.00
- Website
- IMDB