REVIEW: TRAIN DREAMS

4/5

The Man Who Cut Down Trees

102 Mins. Starring: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Alfred Hsing, Nathaniel Arcand, Kerry Condon & William H. Macy. Narrator: Will Patton. Screenplay: Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar. Director: Clint Bentley. On: Netflix.

What dreams may come. The darkest horse for February's Academy Awards may just be a cerebral elegy so poetic, it should be one of Netflix's fall prestige pictures, whilst everyone is binging the final season of 'Stranger Things'. Clint Bentley's brutal and beautiful 'Train Dreams', adapting Denis Johnson's ('Jesus' Son', 'Tree Of Smoke') novel with Greg Kwedar ('Sing Sing'), starring ever underrated 'Loving' actor Joel Edgerton ('Black Mass', 'Midnight Special', 'Boy Erased'), will hit you in the home of where it hurts. If only we could still see it in cinemas, where it's nature looks as compelling as 'The Revenant'. A few birthday's back, my best friend brought me the book, 'The Black Fives: The Epic Story Of Basketball's Forgotten Era', by Claude Johnson. A beautiful basketball book, but also a rich and compelling history of industry in America. Just like this story, serving as a love letter to the landscape of the Stars and Stripes of the past. To paraphrase the great Ben Harper, somewhat, "you have to live my life to get boots (nailed to the tree trunk) like these."

More, "the man who cut down trees", than Jean Giono's 'The Man Who Planted Trees' (another story that also had a profound effect on me, this year), there are some poetic and powerful things to be said here about deforestation and the circles of times that ring true in the trunks. Most, delivered by campfire, by the great William H. Macy in one of his greatest roles yet, worthy of an award. Just like the feature and adapted screenplay nominations, these dreams from Sundance got at this calendar's Gotham Awards. Yet it's the engrossing Edgerton who you will stay with all the way through this epic about the life and times of a humble heart. Whether, it's the beautiful love shared with fellow 'Star Wars' actor, the fantastic Felicity Jones ('The Brutalist, 'The Theory Of Everything') in the meadow, literally playing house, and fondly feeling like family, like 'Loving' Ruth Negga. Or what the great Kerry Condon brings ('Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri', 'The Banshees of Inisherin'). Briefly, but beautifully. Just like the great Clifton Collins Jr. From '187', to 'Nightmare Alley', who will stir you more in one scene, than the echos of your wildest dreams. Or is that nightmares?

Narrated with nuanced beauty by 'Armageddon' actor Will Patton ('Remember The Titans', 'The Postman', 'Minari'). They don't hand out awards for narration. But if they did, he'd hold the envelope. It's funny, me and my friend, who had a running story (in good heart and humour) about the space shuttle his character leaves on the stoop in 'Armageddon', just got talking again about all that, this week, ten years later, thanks to Facebook memories. And you know what, from 'Blood On Her Name', to an award-winning turn in the late, great Sam Shepard's play 'Fool For Love', Will really is something. As are the haunting stuntman and martial artist Alfred Hsing and Nathaniel Arcand's ('Sinners') kindly shopkeeper. All across the American frontier, this logger longs for meaning in the madness of his life. From what he cuts, to what the fire takes at night, before a morning of ash and dust like fresh snowfall on the grey of his winter. Breaking down his career for Vanity Fair recently, 'Blue Moon' and 'Black Phone 2' accomplished actor Ethan Hawke brought back that famous saying about real movies starting the moment you leave the theatre. And when you put your laptop lid down, these dreams will stay with your waking train of thought until the end of the line. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Loving', 'The Power Of The Dog', 'The Revenant'.