Genre: Arthouse, Independent.

What’s it about? A recluse who loves trains.

Who’s In It? Peter Dinklage and some other people (notably Michelle Williams and Bobby Cannavale aka Gyp Rosetti)

You’ll like it if… You can’t get enough Tyrion Lannister…

I had seen Peter Dinklage in a number of small roles. In 30 Rock, for instance, where he played the love interest Liz Lemon mistook for a little boy.

He was always THAT character actor. I could hear Hollywood casting agents going: “We need a midget. Get Dinklage on the phone.”

Except I didn’t know his name.

Then Game of Thrones happened. And I found that a very small man can indeed cast a very large shadow.

Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister is transcendent… Fucking Transcendent.

I needed more of this actor in my life. So I prayed to the old gods and the new.

They came through with this New York Times profile.

This is where I learned of the Station Agent.

The basic plot of which is this…

Dinklage plays Finbar McBride, a ferroequinologist (someone who fucking loves trains). Guy works in a model train store when his one, and presumably only, friend hits the heavenly rails, bequeathing to Tyrion a small dilapidated train depot in New Jersey.

And that’s just perfect.

You see, Finbar is a dwarf, which is something of a novelty to just about everyone he meets. As you might expect, this makes him something of an outcast. He’s so used to being snickered at and not taken seriously that he’s devolved into this disaffected hermit who just wants to be left the fuck alone.

He finds solace only in his train hobby, which is pretty cool as far as hobbies go.

So an abandoned train depot is pretty much the perfect spot for him to dwell.

Yet, in an ironic twist, the place to which Finbar retreats seeking solitude turns out to be  the very place he ends up finding friends. Not total acceptance, mind you. There are plenty of simple-minded townies that give him shit for being a dwarf.

But there are also people that are even crazier and more fucked up than Finbar. It’s sort of like the land of misfit toys.

No doubt, the movie can be a bit dark, but ultimately it’s buoyed by a dry humor that permeates throughout and, of course, Dinklage’s performance.

In this movie, he’s not just a train enthusiast, he IS the train. It’s his performance that carries you along for the ride.