SAN ANTONIO — In Netflix’s “Train Dreams,” set in the latter days of the 19th century and opening of the 20th, a rugged logger named Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) spends months out of each year laying down railroad track and uprooting trees—evidence of a country literally transforming itself in order to close the distance between its growing cities.
In a movie centered around its protagonist constantly looking to carve his path forward without fully recognizing the beauty around him, the metaphor is pretty clear. And in the hands of writer/director Clint Bentley – who was born in Florida and now calls the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas home – and his creative team, that idea carves out depth through the texture of the film’s storytelling, the profundity of its cinematography and the quiet intensity of its performances.
Nature, like life, “Train Dreams” likes to remind its audience, has a way of rendering itself an undeniable force…