CHUG THROUGH AWARDS SEASON

Dessner is on Oscar nomination shortlist for 'Train Dreams,' a film he calls 'a cinematic poem' and knew needed Nick Cave

- BY MIKAEL WOOD POP MUSIC CRITIC

Bryce Dessner of the band the National is in the hunt for an Oscar nod for the title theme, with Nick Cave, and score for the movie 'Train Dreams.'

(Jaron Akmond Los Angeles Times)

A few days before Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony, Bryce Dessner admitted with a laugh that he'd come to Los Angeles without a tuxedo — something of a problem, given that he was up for an award.

"The movie people think about what the actors are going to wear, of course, but the composer — who cares?" he said last week over lunch in Beverly Hills. "I was like, 'Guys, do you have something I could borrow?' "

He might consider getting a tux of his own: Though Dessner and Nick Cave inevitably lost the original song prize at the Globes to the chart-topping "Golden" from "KPop Demon Hunters," their title theme from director Clint Bentley's "Train Dreams" made the shortlist for an Academy Award nomination, as did Dessner's score for the movie about a laborer in northern Idaho in the early 20th century.

Adapted from a 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, "Train Dreams" follows Robert Grainier (played by Joel Edgerton) 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't contain much dialogue — critics have compared it to the movies of Terrence Malick — which means that Dessner's gently rippling chamber-folk music is an almost equal partner to the images in the storytelling.

"It's the water of the river that moves the film along," Bentley said.

The title song features a haunting vocal performance by Cave, the veteran Australian post-punk singer and songwriter, who was so taken with Dessner's music that at first he was reluctant to take part.