All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) (1/24)

We’re starting off strong with this year’s German Oscar submission. (For those of you unaware, each country selects one film every year to vie for the Academy’s Best International Feature award, and only those films can be nominated in that category.) The war film, which premiered to rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, is an adaptation of the classic 1929 novel about German soldiers during World War I. The film seems destined for the Oscars, as the original American film adaptation from 1930 won Best Picture, and this new one certainly lives up to the former’s pedigree. This anti-war war film is a masterclass in technical achievements (much like fellow WWI opus 1917), and is one of the most beautifully executed pieces of art released this year. Helmed by a handful of little known German actors (and of course Daniel Bruhl in a supporting role), All Quiet follows a group of optimistic teenagers who ship out to the titular western front at the tail end of the conflict, only to run headfirst into the stark brutality and futility of war. This is one of the greatest war films ever made and deserves your attention.