A 2025 Historical Drama With A 95% Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Hitting Netflix Very Soon

Netflix is about to drop one of the best movies of the year in the form of a quietly powerful drama that has drawn unanimous praise from critics. "Train Dreams" comes courtesy of co-writer and director Clint Bentley, who previously oversaw 2021's "Jockey" — a well-received drama that deserved more attention than it got. With "Train Dreams," however, Bentley looks to have topped his last effort with a movie that's guaranteed to prompt Oscar buzz.

Based on Denis Johnson's 2011 novella of the same name, "Train Dreams" stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, a logger who helps to build railroads across the United States during the early 20th century. Beginning in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, we follow Grainier as he grows older and works to expand the railroads before meeting and marrying Gladys (Felicity Jones). Together, the couple build a home, and Gladys gives birth to a daughter. But Grainier's work means he has to travel frequently, which requires long stretches away from his family. William H. Macy also co-stars as Arn Peeples, an explosives expert and Grainier's fellow railroad worker.

The movie is a sweeping portrait of a life played out amid the rapidly changing culture and landscape of the U.S. in the 20th century, and critics adore it, having bestowed a near-perfect 95% on the movie over on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, "Train Dreams" is finally coming to Netflix on November 21, 2025, where it will have a chance to gain the kind of recognition a festival run and small theatrical release simply can't provide. That's a darn good thing, because this looks to be one of the best movies of the year (as well as a reminder that there's more to Netflix than Kevin Hart's "Lift" and the decidedly not good "365 Days" film trilogy).

"Train Dreams" made its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival before making the rounds at several other festivals, earning Best Feature and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the 2025 Gotham Film Awards. Netflix snapped up the rights following the movie's Sundance debut and gave it a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 7, 2025, essentially so it could qualify for awards season. That was a smart move, considering how well this film has fared critically.

Among the "top critics" on Rotten Tomatoes, only one reviewer didn't care for the film. The Chicago Reader's Joe Engelman simply found it "disappointing." If it weren't for Engelman, however, "Train Dreams" would have a full 100% rating in that area. Every other reviewer loved "Train Dreams," with Robbie Collin of the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph praising Clint Bentley and his co-writer Greg Kwedar for capturing "the plaintive beauty of Grainier's life on the margins of 20th-century progress without hamming up the romance or laying on the grit." The Los Angeles Times' Mark Olsen, meanwhile, was one of many critics to heap praise on Joel Edgerton for seeming "so credible as a man of the early 20th century" and making "[Grainier] believable as someone who has seen his moment pass him by."

So, if you fancy spending an evening with a film that seems destined to be remembered as one of the best movies of 2025 and which, as Travis M. Andrews of the Washington Post put it, provides a "respite from a world that never gives us a chance to slow down and realize how beautiful it truly is," then you really can't afford to miss "Train Dreams" when it hits Netflix on November 21, 2025.