There’s something profoundly fitting about the opening image of Clint Bentley’s TRAIN DREAMS: Robert Grainier, played with weathered grace by Joel Edgerton, stares pensively through a train window, watching America roll past in all its raw, unfinished beauty. He’s a logger by trade, one of countless men who helped stitch this country together with railroad ties and steel, and that window becomes a kind of metaphor for the film itself—a frame through which we glimpse a life lived in motion, always between places, always between moments of connection and stretches of profound solitude.
Robert’s work takes him away from his wife, portrayed by Felicity Jones, and their infant daughter for long, aching periods. It’s the kind of sacrifice men of that era made without question, trading proximity for purpose, presence for provision. But the calculus of such choices shifts irrevocably when a devastating forest fire tears through the community the Grainiers call home. What was once a simple life, anchored by the promise of return, becomes something else entirely—something marked by absence and the terrible weight of what can be lost in an instant.
TRAIN DREAMS belongs to that increasingly rare category of Hollywood filmmaking: the quiet, cerebral meditation that refuses to announce its emotional devastation with swelling scores or theatrical confrontations. This is a film that trusts stillness, that understands how grief and resilience don’t always manifest in grand gestures but in the small, persistent acts of continuing forward. The impact doesn’t hit you in the theater—it follows you home, settles into your thoughts days later, surfaces unexpectedly when you’re doing something completely unrelated. That’s the sign of a film that’s burrowed beneath your defenses.
What makes the story resonate so deeply is the constellation of supporting performances that orbit Edgerton’s central turn. William H. Macy appears as an old-timer on Robert’s crew, bringing decades of lived experience into every wrinkled expression. Kerry Condon shows up as a forestry services worker, and even in her brief screen time, she carries a kind of practical empathy that feels quintessentially American—the recognition that survival often depends on the kindness of near-strangers. Clifton Collins Jr. plays one of Robert’s only friends, and their scenes together have the easy rhythm of men who’ve learned to communicate more in what they don’t say than in the words they actually speak. And Jones, though her role is limited by the constraints of the story itself, provides the gravitational center around which Robert’s entire existence revolves.
These actors don’t dominate the screen—they can’t, given their limited appearances—but each brings an unmistakable weight that allows us to understand Robert as more than a solitary figure enduring hardship. They help us see him as a man embedded in a network of relationships, however fragile or temporary, who lived not in isolation but in connection with others who were similarly trying to carve out meaning from the unforgiving landscape of early twentieth-century America.
Condon’s performance, in particular, deserves special attention. There’s a specificity to how she inhabits her character, a woman working in what was undoubtedly a male-dominated field, who has learned to move through the world with both competence and caution. She doesn’t need lengthy monologues to establish her character’s depth—it’s there in her posture, in the way she assesses situations before speaking, in the particular quality of her attention when she listens to Robert. Condon has built a career on these kinds of precisely calibrated performances, where restraint becomes its own form of eloquence. In TRAIN DREAMS, she contributes to the film’s larger meditation on how we witness each other’s lives, how we show up for one another in moments of crisis, and how sometimes the most meaningful connections are the ones we don’t expect or fully understand until much later.
Paul Mescal is an Irish God in the new @britishgq interview.
In just a few years, he`s become more than an actor—he`s a mirror we all project onto, filling him with our ideas about masculinity, vulnerability, and what a leading man can be in 2025.
More Mescal at irishfilmtv.com.
A priest. A pool. A Spanish island. And one very dead body. 🏊♂️☠️
THESE SACRED VOWS hits RTÉ One on February 1st, and this wedding weekend mystery is about to become your next obsession.
Newly released trailer now at irishfilmtv.com.
Killarney`s own Jessie Buckley just took home the Critics Choice Award for Best Actress for HAMNET, and her acceptance speech was pure gold 🏆✨
In HAMNET, Buckley delivers a devastating performance as Agnes, William Shakespeare`s wife, navigating the grief of losing their 11-year-old son. Critics are calling it unforgettable, and now she has the trophy to prove it 🎬💚
More Jessie at irishfilmtv.com.
HAMNET star Jessie Buckley shines in BEAST, now on #Netflix.
A troubled woman living in an isolated community finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider suspected of a series of brutal murders.
More at irishfilmtv.com.
🕺✨ DANCING WITH THE STARS IRELAND is back for S9 tonight!
Get ready for spray tans, sequins, and Sunday night sparkle because Ireland`s favourite winter escape is almost here. Who`s ready to vote their faves to victory? 💃
More at irishfilmtv.com.
** Now on Netflix **
RUN AWAY brings Harlan Coben back to form with James Nesbitt doing what he does best—playing a tormented father searching for his missing daughter against all advice.
More at irishfilmtv.com.
By order of the Peaky Blinders, Merry Christmas!
A teaser for the new film PEAKY BLINDERS: THE IMMORTAL MAN just dropped, and it features Cillian Murphy’s gangster Tommy Shelby returning to his old ways despite leaving them all behind at the end of the TV series.
Watch now at irishfilmtv.com.
Domhnall Gleeson heads to a remote Scottish isle for THE INCOMER!
He plays an awkward council worker tasked with relocating two siblings who survive by hunting seabirds, talking to mythical beings, and fiercely defending their homeland from outsiders.
More Domhnall at irishfilmtv.com.
Andrew Scott is bringing one of theater`s most powerful true stories to life.
The ALL OF US STRANGERS star will portray Scottish actor Ian Charleson in ELSINORE, chronicling Charleson`s breathtaking final performance as Hamlet at London`s National Theatre before his death in 1990 at age 40.
More via irishfilmtv.com.
Belfast-born Ciaran Hinds shines in Bradley Copper`s IS THIS THING ON?
With Hinds, you`re not just getting an actor. You`re getting decades of gravitas, warmth, and that rare ability to make every scene feel like it matters. From prestige drama to fantasy epics, he`s built a career on understated brilliance. And now? He`s ready to find the humor in heartbreak.
More Ciaran at irishfilmtv.com.
Gothic drama LIES WE TELL is now on Netflix.
With powerful performances by Agnes O`Casey and David Wilmot, the Irish drama takes Sheridan Le Fanu`s classic novel UNCLE SILAS and transforms it into something urgent and vital for our moment.
More at irishfilmtv.com.
When Colin Farrell and Jessie Buckley finally sat down together, they were strangers—but within moments, the conversation became profound.
Both Irish actors are carrying the weight of devastating roles this year: Farrell as a gambling addict spiraling in Macau in BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER, Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare grieving her son in HAMNET.
Watch now at irishfilmtv.com.
From FAIR CITY to KNIVES OUT! Daryl McCormack shines in the new #netflix film WAKE UP DEAD MAN.
McCormack just wrapped Netflix`s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE opposite Jack Lowden, Emma Corrin, and Olivia Colman. Talk about range: trading viral grift for Jane Austen elegance. Same actor, different century, wildly different moral compass.
More Daryl at irishfilmtv.com.
Eve Hewson brings ghosts to life in Noah Baumbach`s JAY KELLY.
From her breakout in THIS MUST BE THE PLACE to BAD SISTERS and beyond, she`s now haunting George Clooney as Daphne—a face from the past that forces a movie star to confront who he became while chasing fame.
More Eve at irishfilmtv.com.
When the past catches up with you in Amsterdam 🌊
Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville star in MIDWINTER BREAK—a retired couple`s winter getaway becomes a reckoning with memories they`ve tried to outrun for decades, in theatres Feb 20.
New trailer at irishfilmtv.com.
