We give Netflix a hard time for producing a lot of rather terrible stuff as it shotgun blasts original shows and movies at the wall, trying to get something to stick. But at the moment, it has produced an original feature that has racked up a well-deserved 95% on Rotten Tomatoes with over 156 reviews in, making it one of the best-scoring movies of the year.
Train Dreams
Rotten Tomatoes
That movie is Train Dreams, which stars the usually supporting actor Joel Edgerton in a starring role. It’s based on a 2012 novella by Denis Johnson, which has now been adapted into this stellar film. Here’s the synopsis:
Oh neat, Felicity Jones is in there too, I didn’t realize that. If you’ll recall, her two Oscar nominations were for Best Actress for The Theory of Everything and Best Supporting Actress for The Brutalist. She was also the star of probably the best new-era Star Wars film, Rogue One. Edgerton, meanwhile, you might recognize from any number of features from The Gift to Black Mass to The Great Gatsby to Zero Dark Thirty. He was in Star Wars too, in the prequels as young Owen Lars, and he reprised that role for Obi-Wan Kenobi. I first saw him in the 2011 MMA film, Warrior, I believe.
Train Dreams is currently at #5 on Netflix’s Top 10 list, passing up KPop Demon Hunters, which has been hanging on inside that list since early June. With critics this high on the film, it stands to reason whether the movie, Edgerton or Jones could end up in Oscar contention. Clear nominee favorites like One Battle After Another (94%), Sinners (97%), Hamnet (88%), Bugonia (87%), and others have similar or lower scores. Being a Netflix film may not hurt it as much as it may have in the early days. The studio has 73 Oscar nominations to date, with last year’s Emilia Perez having 13 by itself. Streamers have won Best Picture before, like Apple TV’s CODA in 2021.
So, it seems like Train Dreams is one not to miss. Check it out now, and you only need to give it an hour and 43 minutes of your time.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/11/24/netflixs-likely-oscar-nominee-has-a-95-rotten-tomatoes-score/
