Train Dreams
A stoic’s dream
Plot in a nutshell
Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a logger working in early 20th century United States, leads a quiet, unassuming and seemingly unremarkable life. As he wades through life, he tries to make sense of all the events, tragedies and people he meets along the way.
Train Dreams is based on a novella by Denis Johnson. I’ve never heard of it before seeing the end credits of this film, but I ordered a copy within six hours of walking out of the theatre. Clint Bentley’s film starts slow, but the natural splendor of America’s deep forest landscape, the magic hour cinematography, and Will Patton’s soft-spoken, world-weary narration, keeps you glued. The vibe is one of comfort storytelling by a crackling fireplace.
An event involving the tragic death of a Chinaman makes an everlasting impression on Robert Grainier, one that he’s unable to shake off for the rest of the film. Along the path his simple life takes him on, Robert meets people that will make an impression with equal or similar impact; his sweetheart Gladys (Felicity Jones) who would later become his wife and have his child, a fellow logger Arn Peoples (William H. Macy) who would wax philosophical about the old times and the mysteries of life, store owner Ignatius Jack (Nathaniel Arcand) who would help him in his time of need, and others.
Train Dreams is a philosophically-driven poetic ode to life’s wonders, the significance and meanings of the moments we experience and the people we meet along the way. Unpretentious in every way, it is like a dream for lovers of stoic philosophy and those who generally agree that living a life unexamined is not a worthy way to live. If you’re someone who is inclined towards introspection, Train Dreams is worth your time because, while it deals with some of life’s most heartbreaking mysteries carried brilliantly by Joel Edgerton’s award-worthy performance, it will ultimately leave you feeling nourished. It’s one of the best films of the year.
At first I was cautious, then I was transported, and by the end, I felt whole.
When is Train Dreams releasing?
Out in select theatres on November 7, streaming on Netflix starting on November 21.
Magellan
A colonial nightmare
Plot in a nutshell
Tracing the history, the myth and the urban legends surrounding Ferdinand Magellan (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his role during the Spanish and Portuguese conquests of the Philippines in the 16th century.
Lav Diaz is a master of slow cinema and a legend in arthouse circles. He is renowned for the length of his films, which regularly clock in at 4- and 5- hour marks. Acquired taste is an understatement. As impossible as he is to recommend to anyone who doesn’t have the capacity for exceptional patience with cinema, I consider myself a fan. His Norte, The End of History (2013) is among the best 100 films of the century, and I heaped praise on When the Waves Are Gone (2022) after I saw it at the Viennale.
It is then with a heavy heart that I report that my palate could not quite digest Magellan in most of its ahistorical, deconstructionist glory. Were my mind or heart closer to the myth Diaz is busting here, I suspect I’d have felt differently, but as an introduction to Ferdinand Magellan this film simply does not work. Nor is it intended to be.
The context of how Magellan is nursed back to health by his future wife after getting injured during the Capture of Malacca, switches sides from Portugal to Spain in order to lead a voyage in search for a trade route, and undergoes a rise and fall on the island of Cebu, is all very stripped down. True to form, Diaz’s camera is allergic to movement and long takes of single frames contain historic multitudes.
Magellan expects the audience to fill in the blanks of what is conventionally known about the explorer in those frames, while Diaz and Gael Garcia Bernal (at his most mopey and depressed) are focussed on the suffering, the struggle, and the indignity that lie between the lines in history books. And there’s only so much of that you can take, when all else you’re left with are the blanks you can’t fill.
When is Magellan releasing?
It has been acquired by Janus Films, but no set date yet on a UK public release.