There have been a lot of good to great films released this year - serious films, films with urgent political underpinnings, films that mix satire, pathos, and artistic ambition with such style that it salves my damaged psyche with a hope that there will be a light at the end of this dark tunnel in which we currently find ourselves. While there is a mordant undertone to many of these transmissions, there is also an implicit message from these artists that life will go on, and there is always love, joy, and gratitude to celebrate at the end of the year.

TRAIN DREAMS is such a declaration. Based on a novel by Denis Johnson, the film is a metaphysical meditation on ragged survival through unimaginable grief, and it encompasses all of life and death throughout its dreamscape of primeval imagery. Following the trail of tears of a misbegotten railroad logger, Joel Edgerton delivers the performance of a lifetime, and in the cameo of a wizened old timer-philosopher in the camp, William H Macy transforms to such a degree that he caps his distinguished resume with an Oscar worthy supporting performance.

The Splendid Bohemians nominate this darkhorse masterpiece for film of the year, and would like to honor it today by playing Nick Cave’s Train Dreams theme, along with 2 versions of Jackson Browne’s Shadow Dream Song (by Gregg Allman and Tom Rush), and Tom Wait’s Innocent When You Dream.