Dreamin' Wild

Dreamin' Wild tells the true story of Donnie and Joe Emerson, brothers who recorded a pop-funk album in the 1970s on a studio their father built on the family farm in the American northwest after selling most of his land to pay for it. The record went almost nowhere at the time, and the brothers settled into ordinary lives. Decades later, a collector and a producer in New York rediscovered the album, and it was reappraised by critics, turning the two unknowns into belated stars. As an adult, Donnie must reckon with the past and with what his ambitions cost the family who backed him.

Bill Pohlad directed and wrote the screenplay; producers were Kim Roth, Pohlad and Jim Burke. It is his second feature as director, following Love & Mercy in 2015. Casey Affleck plays the older Donnie, with Walton Goggins as Joe, Zooey Deschanel as Nancy, Beau Bridges as father Don Emerson Sr., Chris Messina as Matt Sullivan and Noah Jupe as the young Donnie. It runs 110 minutes and was released in August 2023.

Critical response was warmer than audience response. Critics gave it 7.3 out of 10 across 62 reviews, while on IMDb it holds 6.4 from around 1,700 votes and on TMDB 6.1 from a small pool of 32 votes.