Adapted from a 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, \u201cTrain Dreams\u201d follows Robert Grainier (played by Joel Edgerton<\/a>) through 80 years of life in all its turmoil and routine; we watch as he cuts down logs in the forest, as he nurtures a romantic relationship and becomes a father, as he returns home one day to a nightmarish discovery from which he never quite recovers. A stirring meditation on work, love, nature and grief, the film doesn\u2019t contain much dialogue \u2014 critics have compared it to the movies of Terrence Malick \u2014 which means that Dessner\u2019s gently rippling chamber-folk music is an almost equal partner to the images in the storytelling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the water of the river that moves the film along,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>\n The title song features a haunting vocal performance by Cave, the veteran Australian post-punk singer and songwriter, who was so taken with Dessner\u2019s music that at first he was reluctant to take part.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last thing someone who\u2019s crafted a beautiful score wants is some rock star to come in and sing all over the top of it,\u201d said Cave, himself an experienced film composer. \u201cIt\u2019s happened to me many times.\u201d<\/p>\n Best known as a member of the Grammy-winning indie-rock band the National, Dessner, 49, is one of a growing number of rock musicians finding a place in Hollywood. Last year\u2019s winner of the original score Oscar was \u201cThe Brutalist\u2019s\u201d Daniel Blumberg<\/a>, who got his start in the band Yuck; other composers on this year\u2019s shortlist include Radiohead\u2019s Jonny Greenwood (for \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d), Nine Inch Nails (\u201cTron: Ares\u201d) and Daniel Lopatin, who makes records under the name Oneohtrix Point Never (\u201cMarty Supreme\u201d).<\/p>\n And Dessner isn\u2019t the only member of the National to establish a successful career outside the group: His twin brother Aaron is an in-demand pop producer who\u2019s collaborated with Taylor Swift<\/a>, Ed Sheeran<\/a> and Brandi Carlile<\/a>, among other acts.<\/p>\n Yet \u201cTrain Dreams\u201d feels like a breakthrough for Bryce Dessner \u2014 the point where his backgrounds in roots music, concert performance and film scoring converge.<\/p>\n He came on to the movie early, having previously worked with Bentley on 2021\u2019s \u201cJockey\u201d and 2023\u2019s \u201cSing Sing\u201d (for which Bentley and his creative partner, Greg Kwedar, earned an Oscar nod for adapted screenplay).<\/p>\n \u201cThey sent me the script and I composed a fair amount of music\u201d as Bentley was shooting, Dessner said, \u201cwhich tends to be a bad idea.\u201d He recalled a similar experience about a decade ago on Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s \u201cThe Revenant.\u201d \u201cI wrote like two hours of cello music and then Alejandro \u2014 he\u2019s the nicest person \u2014 he was like, \u2018So, I have to tell you \u2014 I don\u2019t think we need cello.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dessner, who lives in Paris with his wife and young son, was dressed in his usual all-black, as indeed he would be the next night during a live-to-screen performance of \u201cTrain Dreams\u201d at the Egyptian Theatre.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in this case it worked, I think because it\u2019s a different kind of film \u2014 more like a cinematic poem,\u201d he said of \u201cTrain Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of Dessner\u2019s cues evoke the chugging rhythms of a locomotive; others, he said, were inspired by the raw splendor of the Pacific Northwest \u2014 a landscape he immersed himself in by recording much of the score at Flora Recording in Portland, Ore., where the National had worked before.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got analog gear and old ribbon microphones and a janky upright piano,\u201d he said of the studio. \u201cI wanted some dust on the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n Nick Cave at the Royal Festival Hall in London in October.<\/p>\n (Jonathan Brady \/ PA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n For the movie\u2019s title song, Bentley said Cave was the only person he could imagine striking the right tone: a delicate blend of weariness and gratitude.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually don\u2019t know if I could\u2019ve moved on if he\u2019d turned us down,\u201d the director said.<\/p>\n In a phone call, Cave, who called himself a huge fan of Johnson\u2019s book, said he watched the movie \u201cwith one hand over my eyes just because I thought they might\u2019ve done a terrible job of it.\u201d He laughed. \u201cBut within a few minutes, I just eased into it. I was very moved.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the song\u2019s lyrics, which lay out a succession of stark images from Robert Grainier\u2019s world, came to him as he slept after seeing the film. \u201cIt was a gift from a fever dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As a parent who\u2019s lost two sons, did Cave identify with Edgerton\u2019s portrayal of a father in mourning?<\/p>\n \u201cVery much so,\u201d he said, adding that he\u2019d first read Johnson\u2019s book years ago, before his teenage son Arthur died in an accidental fall from a cliff near the family\u2019s home in Brighton, England. \u201cObviously, it was a book about grief, but it didn\u2019t affect me in that way. Then I read it again \u2014 no, actually, I listened to Will Patton\u2019s audiobook, which is a work of art in itself \u2014 and suddenly it wasn\u2019t something I read from a distance.\u201d (Bentley\u2019s movie employs Patton\u2019s narration in voice-over.)<\/p>\n Asked whether he has a favorite line from Cave\u2019s song, Dessner \u2014 who hears \u201cTrain Dreams\u201d in a kind of conversation with the singer\u2019s latest album, \u201cWild God\u201d \u2014 picked the song\u2019s chorus, in which Cave sings, \u201cI can\u2019t begin to tell you how that feels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like the whole film, in a way,\u201d the composer said. \u201cIt\u2019s about what art can do.\u201d<\/p>\n Dessner and his brother grew up in Cincinnati, where Bryce was playing flute and classical guitar by the time he was 12 or 13.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was also really good at math,\u201d Aaron recalled. \u201cThe combination of those things always felt related to me.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Dessners, music was \u201cjust what you did as suburban kids at a time when there was nothing to do,\u201d Bryce said. \u201cYou either do drugs or you play music.\u201d<\/p>\n Bryce joined the National in New York after earning a master\u2019s degree from the Yale School of Music. (The band\u2019s other members are singer Matt Berninger and a second set of brothers in bassist Scott Devendorf and drummer Bryan Devendorf.)<\/p>\n Aaron Dessner, left, Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner of the National perform in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2022.<\/p>\n (Roberto Ricciuti \/ Redferns via Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little bit of an accident that we ended up in a band that got popular,\u201d Aaron said, but that\u2019s definitely what happened. By the mid-2000s, the National\u2019s albums were regularly topping critics\u2019 lists; by 2011, the band was headlining the Hollywood Bowl.<\/p>\n Bryce got seriously into film music after I\u00f1\u00e1rritu heard a piece he composed for Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Phil in 2014; the director called him the next day, Dessner recalled, and asked him to work on \u201cThe Revenant.\u201d<\/p>\n These days, the members of the National are \u201creally enjoying a break,\u201d Dessner said, after dropping two albums in 2023 and touring behind them in 2024. He\u2019s confident the band will come back together but figures it\u2019ll be a year or so before he and his bandmates get anything going again.<\/p>\n Until then, he\u2019s focusing on concert music \u2014 \u201cI just got asked to write a concerto for the ondes martenot,\u201d he said, referring to the early electronic instrument Greenwood famously used on Radiohead\u2019s experimental \u201cKid A\u201d album \u2014 and occasionally collaborating with his brother on Aaron\u2019s pop productions.<\/p>\n \u201cBryce is always going to do something interesting in any setting,\u201d said Aaron, who recently asked him to orchestrate a song for Florence + the Machine.<\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768342151_619_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Bryce](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768342151_798_.jpeg\")
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