Netflix almost always gets a movie nominated for Best Picture, with the studio receiving nominations in the past eight years. With films like Frankenstein performing extremely well in its first week and Jay Kelly looking to be a highly anticipated title, it looks like Netflix’s streak of Best Picture contenders will continue. One film that awards pundits are overlooking as a potential Best Picture nomination is Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams. Although it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, the film has maintained its hype, making it a sleeper Oscar contender.

Train Dreams follows Robert Grainer, played by Joel Edgerton, as a logger and railroad worker in the early 20th century. After experiencing a tragedy, he is in pursuit of finding his place in a world that is constantly changing. Whether it’s from the people he interacts with or from his time working on the railroad, Robert slowly learns his place in the world and his life’s purpose.

The film leans heavily into its themes of life, with its visuals and screenplay expressing the beauty of being alive. The cinematography, in particular, shines a light on the film’s core ideas, capturing the forest setting with a variety of crisp, wide-angle shots reminiscent of a nature documentary. The camera shifts between Robert’s perspective and that of a small insect. While these two fields of view could’ve easily made the visual storytelling feel a bit messy, they seamlessly blend to express how vast the world truly is. It also aligns with Robert’s current state, in which he initially believes he plays such a small role in society. Films like The Revenant prove that forest settings act as a cheat code for stunning visuals, but the work on Train Dreams is awe-inspiring for even more reasons.

The sound design is equally as immersive as the cinematography. From the crunch of a leaf to the rush of a river, the film’s authentic use of sound perfectly portrays its nature setting. The movie blends perfectly with the non-diegetic music, using sound to put the audience directly into the scenes with the characters, making for a far more sympathetic experience than the average drama.

Joel Edgerton has always been a great actor who’s never been nearly as appreciated as he deserves. In Train Dreams, he proves his high caliber of acting once again. Playing a mostly reserved character, Edgerton brings immense empathy and nuance to the role, grounding his performance in a way that anyone can take away something from. His eyes convey so much of his character’s pain, with something as simple as a quick glance holding a surreal amount of emotional weight. Although the character goes through a compelling arc, Robert also serves as an outsider, learning about life through observation rather than solely through experience. It may not be as showy a performance as something like Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another, but Edgerton is more than deserving of Oscar recognition for his work.

The story delves deep into the profound nature of life, exploring ideas of grief and purpose in a humanistic way. Robert has a fairly basic job for a man in the early 20th century, but he struggles to find contentment with his work. Having to be away from his family for long periods because of his work, Robert struggles to find contentment. From his times of isolation as well as his interactions with others, his pursuit of contentment makes for some of the most thought-provoking scenes of the year, forcing the audience to embrace their own lives just as Robert is attempting to do.

The film has an aimless quality, and although it mostly works in the movie’s favor, there were times when it didn’t. The third act, in particular, feels like a bunch of separate sequences stitched together rather than a cohesive whole. It wasn’t until a time jump near the end of the film that it fully realized itself again, with a montage sparking some of the year’s heaviest emotions and ending the film on a massive high.

Small nitpicks aside, Train Dreams is a melancholic but extremely effective drama with some of the year’s best craftsmanship. Experiencing the characters learn the value of life and the hurdles that come with it may not sound like the most pleasant experience, but Clint Bentley’s work as a writer/director shows that it can be just as engaging as a nonstop action thriller. Netflix may think that films like Jay Kelly and Frankenstein are the right ones to push for awards, but if they pivoted to Train Dreams, they would likely find rewarding results.

Train Dreams played as the Centerpiece Screening at the Heartland International Film Festival. The film is now playing in select theaters and will be streaming on Netflix on November 21.

Rating: 8/10

Oscar Prospects:

Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Original Song