‘Train Dreams’ receives early Oscar buzz as Spokane crew gets sneak peek to film ahead of Netflix release

Locals may have a hometown favorite to root for at the Academy Awards come March.

Clint Bentley’s “Train Dreams” brings Spokane’s rural and urban scenery to the big screen as a star-studded cast linked arms with the Lilac City’s finest film crew to craft a poignant movie that continues to draw national attention.

Based on Denis Johnson’s novella of the same name, the film follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a stoic railroad laborer, as he navigates love, loss and isolation in the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century.

The film also stars three Academy Award-nominated actors, with William H. Macy, Kerry Condon and Felicity Jones.

Filming took about five weeks in April and May 2024, and was almost entirely shot in Eastern Washington, including Metaline Falls, Colville, Chewelah and downtown Spokane.

While the stars dazzled in front of the camera, those working behind the scenes also brought their A-game.

No stranger to Spokane’s film industry, Marc Dahlstrom played an integral role in the making of the film.

Dahlstrom, a founding partner of North by Northwest Productions, served as a production supervisor. He hired the crew, coordinated specific equipment and managed the budget.

With nearly half the crew from Spokane, Dahlstrom helped create a window that gives audiences a glimpse of the Spokane area 100 years prior.

“Cinematically, it’s beautifully shot. It’s a big love letter to the state of Washington,” he said.

Dahlstrom gleamed as he praised director of photography Adolpho Veloso for the shots captured during blue hour, the period of twilight when the sun sits just below the horizon and gives the remaining sunlight a blue shade.

Local sculptor Vince De Felice worked as the key scenic artist in the construction foreman’s department to create set pieces to coincide with the film’s time period. De Felice has been involved in the Spokane film industry for more than 30 years. Other notable work of his includes the Bulldog statue outside of Gonzaga’s McCarthey Athletic Center and the Louis Davenport statue at the Davenport Hotel.

Whenever an aging sign or rich wood is shown on screen, that’s De Felice’s team working its magic.

De Felice’s team was tasked with creating life-sized logs to fulfill Bentley’s vision.

“You can imagine that it was a movie about logging and it’s very, very difficult to be chopping down and finding huge stumps, logs and trees,” he said with a laugh, “and then to be able to move those or place those where you want them is extremely difficult and heavy and labor intensive.”

De Felice constructed the logs using primarily Styrofoam and foam sprays. He said he reveled in time spent with his team, using whatever means necessary to make set pieces so realistic that even a seasoned arborist wouldn’t be the wiser.

“Whether it’s cardboard or chicken wire, each application kind of lends itself to find a path, and you kind of embrace it and then you’re just altering things to kind of fool the eye,” De Felice said.

Andy Wert, a veteran prop master who has worked on more than 100 films , was responsible for locating and designing the various objects the actors encountered on screen.

Before shooting began, Wert took his laundry list of needed props and scoured the area.

“I would say at least 90% of the stuff we got locally,” Wert said. “We sourced right here. We were able to find from, you know, just word of mouth.”

Wert connected with a repair man in North Idaho who deals in first-generation chainsaws and was able to get them running for a handful of shots. The various antiques shops on Monroe Street also came in handy for smaller props such as toys and purses.

It’s clear that Wert pulled out all the stops in his role. According to Dahlstrom, everyone who worked on the film had the lingering question on the back of their mind: “How can we take this story and elevate it?”

The leading man, Edgerton, took that in the literal sense as he and crew headed to 49 Degrees North to get some shots of him trekking through the snowy landscape.

While local skiers and snowboarders might recognize their favorite mountain to shred on, others will likely find their ‘aha’ moment while pointing at the screen as Grainier is seen strolling past some of downtown Spokane’s most historic buildings, such as the Davenport Hotel and The Spokesman-Review.

In a day and age where superhero action movies control the box office, “Train Dreams,” a slow-paced, human story gives viewers the opportunity to take Grainier’s hard-knock experiences and reflect on their own life, Dahlstrom said.

Dahlstrom was able to witness the film resonate with audiences when it premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January. The film was met with universal acclaim, praising Edgerton for giving a career-defining performance.

Netflix purchased the distribution rights shortly after and slated for it to hit select theaters Nov. 7 and then release it via streaming Nov. 21.

According to Dahlstrom, Netflix has been putting a lot of promotional money into its Oscar campaign and has recently picked up a lot of steam in the best picture race after having strong showings at recent film festivals in New York, Mill Valley and Middleburg.

Variety magazine’s Clayton Davis wrote that the film could be the best picture sleeper of the Oscar season.

Fortunately, for local crew members who couldn’t make it to festival premieres, the Garland Theater held a premiere of its own on Oct. 26. Close to 350 crew members, from extras to production assistants, were able to see the final product of their labor of love and reminiscence with one another about the times had when a little slice of Hollywood was brought to their neck of the woods.

For those who are eager to catch “Train Dreams” on the big screen, the Magic Lantern Theater will be screening the film this week with showings at 7 p.m. Thursday and then at 4:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Dahlstrom said the film deserves to be seen on the big screen for the images alone. For a film that takes audiences on an emotional journey as they witness an imperfect man struggle during ever-changing times, complete immersion goes a long way.

As for any future productions to take place in Spokane, the crew was hopeful “Train Dreams” will showcase what the local scenery, and the community, has to offer.

“It’ll make its mark, and people will recognize and seek out something similar, you know, to try to capture that same,” Wert said. “I think that Spokane has everything that you need or would want or hope for in the independent film market.”