Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Song 
Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) searches his life for meaning in the face of tragedies while working as a logger in the late 19th century Pacific Northwest.
On paper, this is not a film I thought I would enjoy. It's paced very deliberately, the characters are bare sketches, and the cinematography centers on nature. I hated Tree of Life for less. But Train Dreams resonated in a way none of Terence Malick's films ever have. Maybe Clint Bradley is just a better director for me.
It is slow and incredibly sad, interspersed with sudden violence. Bit like life, really. Edgerton doesn't have a lot of lines but he does a lot of emoting. It is heavily Vibes-based and will not be for everyone. I recently had a death in the family so that may have been a factor in how well I responded to it. It's probably my second choice for Best Picture but I seriously doubt it's actually going to win. I don't think it will get anything, honestly. It's too quiet and unassuming. I will say that I absolutely hated the Nick Cave song at the end. It felt so jarring tonally and did not work for me at all.
It is streaming on Netflix.
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