In Train Dreams, Joel Edgerton shines in a haunting tale of life in the woods

Train Dreams (M18)

103 minutes, showing on Netflix
★★★★☆

This drama, gaining Oscar buzz for Australian actor Joel Edgerton’s performance, charts the life of seasonal worker Robert Grainier (Edgerton), who moves across the United States at the turn of the century, building railroads and logging trees. He meets Gladys (Felicity Jones), they marry and have a baby. But the forest is where the taciturn, solitary man feels most at home.

Workers like Robert scar the Northwest landscape. In turn, the tides of American history change men’s lives, often just as brutally. Robert sees Chinese co-workers murdered by racist mobs; the arrival of the chainsaw allows his team to strip the land of trees faster. Robert is a simple man, but a sensitive one. Each event he experiences and each person he meets on the road leaves a mark.

This film adaptation of American novelist Denis Johnson’s 2002 novella of the same name comes with lush cinematography that exults in the brooding majesty of the landscape. The dialogue is rich with the plainspoken poetry of the working class. In director and co-writer Clint Bentley’s hands, the rhythms of a labourer’s life take on a haunting beauty.

I Love LA (R21)

Showing on HBO Max
★★★★☆

Memes about actresses Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are rife, centred on the press tour for Wicked: For Good, during which cult-like buzzwords such as “holding space” and “sacredness” were used. For many, their emotional oversharing felt both profoundly intimate yet deeply meaningless.

After a couple of episodes of the pointedly satirical comedy series I Love LA, the Erivo-Grande vibe snaps into context. They belong to a subculture of creatives who make Los Angeles their home. In a place where insecurity reigns, wellness-speak reassures insiders that the stranger across from them is one of their own; they are safe.

Comedian Rachel Sennott (the comedy Bottoms, 2023) is the creator, executive producer and star of the series. She plays Maia, an aspiring talent manager who, at 27 – considered almost over the hill in LA – is desperate for a promotion. Josh Hutcherson plays her long-suffering boyfriend Dylan and frequent Sennott collaborator Ayo Edebiri is Mimi, a pop star whose girlbossing hides a mean streak.

Satirising Hollywood is a genre in itself, but few shows poking fun at the entertainment industry are as funny or as up-to-date with trends. Maia and friends must cope with the anxieties of a city where influencers reign and talent means nothing.

Kingdom

Available on BBC Player and BBC Earth

In a lush river valley in Zambia, four families are locked in a struggle for dominance. They are the leopards, hyenas, wild dogs and lions. Their fight for supremacy do not just occur between species – inside each group, battles of succession are just as fierce.

This is all set against a landscape crowded with elephants and baboons. Filmed over five years, this series – presented by Sir David Attenborough – marks the first time the BBC Natural History Unit’s producers have followed a group of characters so intensely over such a long period.

Stream new episodes on BBC Player every Monday at noon or watch it on BBC Earth (StarHub TV Channel 407 and Singtel TV Channel 203) every Sunday at 8pm.