Felix Kammerer Archives

Review: ‘Frankenstein’ (2025), starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz

March 12, 2026

by Carla Hay

Mia Goth and Oscar Isaac in “Frankenstein” (Photo by Ken Woroner/Netflix)

“Frankenstein” (2025)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Some language in Danish and French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Europe and in the Arctic Ocean, from the 1830s to 1857, the sci-fi horror film “Frankenstein” (based on the novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A “mad scientist,” who is obsessed with finding a way to prevent death, creates an immortal humanoid from various body parts, and the creature goes from being the scientist’s slave to becoming the scientist’s tormenter.

Culture Audience: “Frankenstein” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the novel on which the movie is based, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, the movie’s headliners, and lavish and artistically made horror movie remakes.

Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth in “Frankenstein” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

This version of “Frankenstein” is a bit too long, and Oscar Isaac’s performance is a little too hammy. However, the movie’s technical mastery is stunning, and Jacob Elordi’s noteworthy performance as Frankenstein’s creature is the film’s soul. It’s ultimately the type of movie that’s worth seeing on the biggest screen possible.

Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, “Frankenstein” is based on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.” “Frankenstein” had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival. “Frankenstein” takes place in various parts of Europe, from the 1830s to 1857. The movie was actually filmed in Scotland and in the Canadian cities of Toronto and North Bay.

“Frankenstein” explores issues that are still relevant today, such as how far science should go to alter nature; preventing or delaying death; and the ethics of creating a scientific experimental “monster” that becomes too powerful to control. This version of “Frankenstein” begins in 1857, on the Royal Danish ship Horizont, which is stuck on an iceberg in the Arctic Ocean’s North Pole. In the show, several of the ship’s sailors have found a wounded man with a prosthetic left leg.

The sailors soon find out that the wounded man, whose name is Victor Frankenstein (played by Isaac), is a scientist who has been hunting and is being hunted by an unnamed creature (played by Elordi), who rises up from the ice and snow and shouts, “Bring him to me!” Under orders from the ship’s Captain Anderson (played by Lars Mikkelsen), the sailors begin attacking the creature, mostly by shooting guns at it.

The creature has superhuman strength and is able to kill several of the men. However, the creature is shot and falls into the ice. The sailors think that the creature has died. But as Victor is getting medical treatment on the ship by Dr. Udsen (played by Joachim Fjelstrup), Victor tells Captain Anderson that this creature can’t die and will soon come looking for Victor again.

“Frankenstein” is then told in two chapters. Chapter 1 is titled “Victor’s Tale,” which takes up most of this 149-minute movie. Chapter 2 is titled “The Creature’s Tale,” which can be considered the part of the movie that has the best acting performances.

“Victor’s Tale” tells Victor’s life story, beginning in the 1930s, when he was in his early teens (played by Christian Convery) and living as a nobleman’s heir in England. Victor’s father is a brilliant baron/surgeon Leopold Frankenstein (played by Charles Dance), who is abusive and stern to Victor. Leopold expects Victor to also become a medical scientist.

Victor is much closer to his mother, a French royal named Claire (played by Mia Goth), who is kind and patient with Victor. In a voiceover, the adult Victor mentions that Leopold only married Claire for her dowry and her royal title. Leopold thinks Claire and Victor are weak-minded, and Leopold is resentful of the close emotional bond that Claire and Victor have with each other, so Leopold treats both of them with contempt.

Claire is pregnant when she is first seen in the movie. She dies while giving birth to son William (played by Rafe Harwood), who grows up to be the preferred son of Leopold. After the death of Claire, Victor becomes moody, withdrawn and cynical. By contrast, William is cheerful, friendly and optimistic. Victor vows to himself that he will make it his life mission to find a way to prevent death, as a way to pay tribute to his mother Claire.

The Frankenstein family experiences financial ruin after revolts and fires ruin their plantation empire. Leopold eventually dies. Victor moves to England and then Scotland, while William moves to Vienna and lives with family members. Victor’s childhood could have been trimmed by about 15 minutes, because this is one of the areas of the movie that’s a little too long.

The rest of “Frankenstein” shows adult Victor (played by Isaac) as the “mad scientist” that he had become. By 1855, Victor has been expelled from the Royal College of Medicine for his radical idea of putting together body parts to form an immortal creature. However, Victor finds a financial investor for his experiment.

The wealthy investor is weapon manufacturer Henrich Harlander (played by Christoph Waltz), whose niece Elizabeth (also played by Goth) is the fiancée of Victor’s younger brother William (played by Felix Kammerer), who has grown up to be a kind man but with a very bland personality. No one in the movie comments on how Elizabeth looks like Claire, who is perceptive, opinionated and empathetic. It’s somewhat strange that the movie omits any acknowledgement about Elizabeth’s identical resemblance to Claire, but this omission doesn’t ruin the movie.

Victor’s family estate is the only thing left from the Frankenstein family fortune, and it’s where Victor has his scientific lab. Victor gets body parts of executed criminals from an executioner (played by Burn Gorman) after Victor finds a way to re-animate a human corpse. With the help of Heinrich, Victor assembles these body parts that become the creature in the movie. At first, Victor is thrilled with his invention, as he teaches it how to act and think like a human.

However, that excitement turns into disillusionment and anger, when Victor sees that the creature can’t seem to say anything else besides Victor’s name. Victor also sees that the creature has superhuman strength, so he chains up the creature and treats it like an imprisoned slave. Elizabeth shows compassion to the creature and forms an emotional bond with it.

A turning point in the story comes when Victor decides to kill the creature, by setting the family manor on fire, but the creature escapes and encounters an elderly blind man (played by David Bradley), who changes the creature’s life. The creature is actually more intelligent than Victor thinks it is. The rest of “Frankenstein” shows how the power balance shifts from Victor having total control over the creature to being hunted by the creature. Victor also hunts the creature because thinks the creature is too dangerous to be on its own.

“Frankenstein” is a visually dazzling film that has award-worthy production design, costume design, makeup and hairstyling. However, some of the movie’s narrative is disjointed and unnecessary. For example, there’s a subplot that goes nowhere about sexual tension/attraction that Victor feels for Elizabeth, who does not feel the same way about Victor. It’s a creepy attraction on Victor’s part, not just because Elizabeth is engaged to marry Victor’s brother William but also because Elizabeth looks exactly like Claire, the dead mother of Victor and William.

And the character of adult William is very underdeveloped and almost nothing is revealed about what his life was like after he moved to Vienna. There’s no explanation for why William is marrying someone who looks exactly like his mother. One can assume that photos and/or paintings of a noblewoman such as Claire existed. In addition, William has family members who could’ve told him how Elizabeth is Claire’s look-alike. Elizabeth gets a lot more screen time than William, who doesn’t have much to say or do about anything.

However, “Frankenstein” finds its emotional apex when the creature begins to say more than just the name Victor. It’s in Elordi’s riveting performance (which is aching and poignant, instead of being a stereotypical monster that’s always menacing) that “Frankenstein” has its greatest emotional resonance. In the dual roles of Claire and Elizabeth, Goth also performs quite well as someone who is independent-minded without sacrificing integrity. “Frankenstein” is intended to be an epic film. It succeeds in almost every way on a technical level, while it’s a mixed bag on a creative/performance level. Just like Frankenstein’s creature, the movie has its flaws, but it makes a lasting impression.

Netflix released “Frankenstein” in select U.S. cinemas on October 17, 2025. Netflix premiered the movie on its streaming service on November 7, 2025.

Review: ‘Eden’ (2025), starring Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney, Toby Wallace and Felix Kammerer

August 29, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby in “Eden” (Photo by Jasin Boland/Vertical)

“Eden” (2025)

Directed by Ron Howard

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1929 to 1934, on the Galapagos island of Floreana in Ecuador, the dramatic film “Eden” (based on real events) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one Latin person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Several settlers on the remote island of Floreana have various conflicts with each other, which get worse as food resources become scarce.

Culture Audience: “Eden” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and filmmaker Ron Howard, and are interested in dramas based on true stories, but this movie is disappointing and mostly dull.

Felix Kammerer, Ana de Armas and Toby Wallace in “Eden” (Photo by Jasin Boland/Vertical)

Watching the shallow historical drama “Eden” is like being stuck on a miserable island with pretentious and/or predatory people. Although the characters are based on real people, most of “Eden’s” cast members have obvious fake accents. That’s not the only problem with “Eden.” A story that should be mostly suspenseful is instead mostly sluggish, with a clumsily handled showdown crammed in toward the end.

Directed by Ron Howard and written by Noah Pink, “Eden” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie takes place from 1929 to 1934, on the remote Galapagos island of Floreana in Ecuador. “Eden” is a dramatic version of real events, but the dialogue and direction make it look like a slightly pompous soap opera.

“Eden” (formerly titled “Origin of Species”) is told in chronological order and begins with a caption stating that in the year 1929: “The world economy has collapsed in the wake of World War I. Fascism is spreading. People are desperate for a way out.”

A German botanist named Dr. Friedrich Ritter (played by Jude Law) and his lover Dore Strauch (played by Vanessa Kirby) have relocated to Floreana to isolate themselves and to live in their own version of utopia. Dore has multiple sclerosis that has made one of her legs disabled. Friedrich has convinced Dore that living on the island can cure her multiple sclerosis. This unrealistic medical prediction is one of many indications of how out-of-touch Friederich is.

The caption in the beginning of the movie further states: “The world learns of Ritter’s isolated existence through his letters, picked up by the rare passing vessel. Ritter’s mission: to write a radical new philosophy that will save humanity from itself.”

Friedrich, who is atheist, is often seen typing letters that have his rambling anti-government philosophies. For example, Friedrich says in one of his rants: “Democracy leads to fascism, which leads to war.” The movie often shows Friedrich talking out loud to himself as he writes pretentious drivel such as, “What is the true meaning of life? Pain. In pain, we find truth. And in truth, salvation.”

For someone who wants to be “left alone,” Friedrich as a hypocritical way of showing it. Allowing his letters to be picked up by passing vessels is an indication that he definitely wants attention from the “outside world.” By the time the story begins in “Eden,” Friedrich’s letters have gotten media exposure, and he has become somewhat of a cult folk hero for disillusioned people who want better lives for themselves.

Not surprisingly, some people who know about Friedrich and his island existence have sought him out on Floreana. Two of these devotees are a married German couple named Heinz Wittmer (played by Daniel Brühl) and Margret Wittmer (played by Sydney Sweeney), who have sold all of their belongings to relocate to Floreana. The Wittmers hope to learn more about utopian living from Friedrich.

Heinz and Margret have moved to Floreana with Heinz’s son/Margret’s stepson Harry Wittmer (played by Jonathan Tittlel), who is 14 years old. Harry’s deceased mother was Heinz’s first wife. Soon after arriving at the island, Margret tells Heinz that she’s about three months pregnant.

Margret can be heard in voiceovers reading letters that she has written to her unnamed mother, who is never seen in the movie. Based on these letters, Margret’s mother seems to be stern and judgmental, because Margret gives an apologetic explanation for why Margret has radically changed her life by moving to Floreana: “I’m sorry for leaving without saying goodbye, but I cannot handle another lecture about marrying a man broken by the war. I am simply doing what you always taught me: supporting my husband.”

Friedrich’s voiceovers and Margret’s voiceovers somewhat clutter up the movie. Over time, these narrative choices for the film become more apparent because Friedrich and Margret (who’s a lot tougher than she looks) are the “alpha” partners in their respective relationships. However, these voiceovers don’t offer much substance to the overall movie because the depictions of these main characters are still very superficial.

Friedrich and Dore are standoffish to the Wittmers when the Wittmers first arrive on the island. Dore is especially skeptical that the Wittmers won’t be able to adjust well to the Foreana’s rough terrain. Food can become scarce. People on the island often have to deal with some of the island’s wild animals (such as packs of feral dogs) that want the same food. Floreana is also a tropical island that has deadly creatures, such as poisonous snakes.

Before moving to Floreana, Heinz was a personal secretary to the mayor of Cologne, Germany. Considering that Friedrich despises bureaucracy, you can easily predict his contempt for Heinz. Friedrich’s animosity toward Heinz grows even more when Heinz proves to be a better farmer than Friedrich.

However, the Wittmers definitely have difficulty adjusting to their new environment at first. Friedrich and Dore have an attitude that the Wittmers need to fend for themselves. There’s a scene were Dore coldly makes this comment about the Wittmers to Friedrich: “They’re clearly suffering.” And then, in the next sentence she abruptly says to Friedrich: “Shall we fuck?” It’s an example of the movie’s awful dialogue.

The island gets more residents with the unwelcome arrival of a seductive diva who loves to be the center of attention. She calls herself “Baroness” Eloise von Wagner-Bousquet (played by Ana de Armas), who has a murky background but clams to be a wealthy royal from Europe. It’s implied that the Baroness is a con artist with a phony identity.

The Baroness is accompanied by her two lovers, whom she treats like servants: Robert Phillipson (played by Toby Wallace) is an extrovert. Rudolph “Rudy” Lorenz (played by Felix Kammerer) is an introvert. The Baroness is a manipulator who likes to make Robert and Rudy compete for her affections and attention. She’s also very high-maintenance and expects to always have the best possible food on the island, even if Robert and Rudy have to steal from their neighbors.

The Baroness and Margret clash with each other because they are complete opposites. Margret is offended by Baroness’ bawdy talk and indiscreet expression of sexuality. The Baroness has a dog named after the notorious sexual sadist Marquis de Sade. Margret is the type of person who gets upset just by seeing adults naked.

Most of “Eden” is about how all of these people have a very uncomfortable existence on the island. Jealousies, resentments, hunger and greed all get mixed into an emotional cauldron that reaches an exploding point. Friedrich isn’t the only delusional egomaniac on the island. The Baroness talks about her big plans to build a luxury resort on Floreana. It’s an idea that Friedrich and Dore obviously hate.

Unfortunately, “Eden” is a display of bad and unconvincing accents by many of the cast members. The worst offender is de Armas, whose stilted delivery is too affected, even if she’s portraying a con artist. Sweeney’s German accent isn’t consistent, although she does make the necessary effort to depict her Margret character as more interesting than Margret first appears to be.

Law gives a compelling performance as the brooding and sulking Friedrich, but like most of the “Eden” characters, there’s not much depth to Friedrich’s personality. Brühl (one of the few “Eden” cast members who is of German heritage in real life) doesn’t have an accent problem, but his character is written as too bland. Kirby doesn’t have much that she can do to give inscrutable and moody Dore any charisma because Dore is ultimately living in the shadow of Friedrich.

“Eden” stumbles by mishandling the irony of how Friedrich, who hates bureaucracy and rules, wants be the leader of this motley community, and he expects others to follow his unwritten rules. Instead, there are disjointed scenes that are meant to be provocative, but the impact is diluted by cringeworthy conversations or performances that look too manufactured. And there’s a childbirth scene in the movie that looks utterly fake.

One of the worst aspects of the movie is how unrealistic the costume design looks for characters who are supposed to be living on a remote island for a long period of time. The island doesn’t have laundry service or beauty salons, but you’d never know it from how polished everyone and their clothes look. Dore’s slightly messy hair is about the only thing that comes closest to what realistic hygiene would look like on a remote island with no basic amenities. A big part of the story is about the characters experiencing starvation because of the island’s food shortages, yet all the characters in the movie look very well-nourished.

“Eden” goes around in circles with repetitive fighting and betrayals until the inevitable descent into mayhem where not everyone gets out alive. By the time the movie comes to its messily contrived end, viewers will feel like “Eden” is an empty exercise that didn’t tell enough about the real people involved. For a more meaningful account of the real story, watch the documentary “The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden,” which was released in 2014, and directed by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller.

Vertical released “Eden” in U.S. cinemas on August 22, 2025.

Review: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (2022), starring Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Edin Hasanovic, Daniel Brühl and Devid Striesow

March 12, 2023

by Carla Hay

Felix Kammermer in “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Photo by Reiner Bajo/Netflix)

“All Quiet on the Western Front” (2022)

Directed by Edward Berger

German and French with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Germany and France, from 1917 to 1918, the World War I dramatic film “All Quiet on the Western Front” (based on the novel of the same name) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A teenager loses his innocence after he becomes a soldier in the German Army during World War I, while a ruthless general and a liberal politician have different ideas about how Germany should handle the war.

Culture Audience: “All Quiet on the Western Front” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of realistic war movies and Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel of the same name.

Daniel Brühl (pictured at far right) in “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Photo by Reiner Bajo/Netflix)

Told from a German perspective, this version of “All Quiet on the Western Front” is the most brutal and harrowing in showing the horrors of World War I. The movie has well-crafted technical assets, but the personalities of the characters are underdeveloped. The main protagonist is a teenage German soldier. The actor portraying this character has less than 15 minutes of dialogue in this 147-minute movie.

Directed by Edward Berger, the 2022 version of “All Quiet on the Western Front” is based on Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel of the same name. Berger co-wrote the adapted screenplay with Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell. It’s the third movie version of the novel, following the 1930 version (directed by Lewis Milestone) and the 1979 TV-movie version (directed by by Delbert Mann).

The first two movie adaptations of “All Quiet on the Western Front” were American-made and starred American actors portraying Europeans. The 2022 version of “All Quiet on the Western Front” (which was filmed in the Czech Republic) is a German production and has German actors in the majority of the starring roles. The movie had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

In the 2022 version “All Quiet at the Western Front” (which takes place in Germany and France from 1917 to 1918), viewers see the transformation of teenage German soldier Paul Bäumer (played by Felix Kammerer) from being a naïve recruit who’s eager to participate in the war to an emotionally devastated war veteran who has been worn down by all the death and destruction around him. Meanwhile, the movie shows how two very different government officials have contrasting views on Germany’s actions during this war. One is a liberal politician who wants to negotiate to end the war, while the other is a ruthless general who wants Germany to win the war at any cost.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” begins in early 1917, by showing a young German soldier named Heinrich Gerber (played by Jakob Schmidt) fighting on a battlefield. The movie does a freeze-frame, right when he’s about to attack a French soldier. What happened?

Viewers then see that Heinrich has died, because his body is dumped in a truck that is transporting the corpses of other German military men. The movie then shows that Henrich’s former military uniform has been sent for repairs to a factory in Germany. His name tag is still on the uniform.

In the spring of 1917, quiet and amiable 17-year-old Paul is joyously celebrating his graduation from an all-boys high school at a ceremony attended by by fellow classmates. The school’s headmaster gives the graduates a patriotic pep talk about Germany’s involvement in World War I. Whether or not Paul was thinking about joining the German Army before this pep talk, Paul enlists in the army soon after his graduation.

When he gets his military uniform, Paul notices right away that it has the name tag Heinrich Gerber. He tells the person who gave the uniform to Paul that there must be a mistake, because he was given someone else’s uniform. The uniform is taken away, and Paul is given another uniform. Paul is given an explanation that the uniform that Paul was given by mistake was probably discarded by the previous owner because the uniform was too small.

Of course, viewers (but not Paul) know that the Henrich is dead. And the fact that the German Army is recycling a dead man’s uniform is a symbol of how impersonal and “assembly line” a war can be, in terms of how thousands or millions of soldiers on the front line are treated. Paul is about to find out the hard way that he’s just another number in this vicious war. The movie also shows this “assembly line” symbolism when Paul is assigned the task of collecting military identification tags from dead bodies on battlefields.

Paul and his troop are eventually sent to France, which is occupied by Germany at this time. The expected horrific battle scenes ensue, with graphic depictions of killings and other deaths during combat. But amid the madness and mayhem, Paul bonds with some of his fellow soldiers. The movie’s brightest and most endearing moments come from scenes showing these friendships.

One of Paul’s army buddies is Albert Kropp (played by Aaron Hilmer), who is about the same age as Paul and who becomes Paul’s best friend in this war. Albert, who sees himself as somewhat of a charming ladies’ man, often talks about how he can’t wait for the war to end so he can go back to being around women. As a new recruit, Albert is terrified and very nervous, compared to Paul, who starts off being very enthusiastic and confident about serving his country in this war. But that confidence is then destroyed by several traumatic experiences.

Four other men from Paul’s troop become part of a tight-knit circle of close acquaintances, including Paul. Stanislaus “Kat” Katczinsky (played by Albrecht Schuch), who is in his 30s, likes to portray himself as a cocky “alpha male” type. However, there’s a very poignant scene where Kat (who cannot read) asks Paul to read a letter from Kat’s wife. The letter reveals that Kat’s somewhat arrogant demeanor actually masks a lot of personal pain.

Two of Paul’s classmates from high school are also part of the troop: Franz Müller (played by Moritz Klaus) and Ludwig Behm (played by Adrian Grünewald). Ludwig doesn’t hesitate to show how afraid he is about being in combat. While hiding out with other troop members in a bunker, Ludwig cries out for his mother. He gets some insults from a few of the soldiers, who think Ludwig is being wimpy, but Paul can understand this fear because he feels it too.

Tjaden Stackfleet (played by Edin Hasanovic), who is in his late 20s or early 30s, is a military police officer who dreams of being promoted to the position of corporal. Kat scoffs at Tjaden by saying, “You’ll never be a corporal.” Tjaden (who is deeply insecure) takes this comment as a personal insult but attempts to brush it off, so as not to let it show how much this comment hurt his feelings.

Through it all, Paul tries to hold on to his humanity when the harsh realities of war fighting force Paul and other people in combat to do some very inhumane things. Just like almost every movie that has a lot of war combat scenes, the soldiers face moral dilemmas and have to make split-second decisions that could mean life or death. And for all-male troops, there are machismo issues about who can look the toughest and the bravest.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” is not subtle at all in contrasting the filthy and dangerous living conditions of the soldiers on the front lines of combat and comparing all of it to the pampered and safe living conditions of the leaders who cause these wars. The movie cuts back and forth betwen these contrasts in several scenes. It’s a way to put an emphasis on who really benefits financially from war, which can be a profitable business for some people.

Libeal politician Matthias Erzberger (played by Daniel Brühl) wants to end the war by having Germany peacefully negotiate with France. He meets with France’s Marshal Ferdinand Foch (played by Thibault de Montalembert), who offers a deal that is non-negotiable, with Germany given a deadline of 72 hours to respond to the deal. Erzberger is put in a tough situation: He doesn’t want to give in to these demands too easily, because he knows he might be branded as a traitor to Germany. France’s Generalmajor Maxime Weygand (played by Gabriel Dufay) also plays a role in these tense German-French war discussions.

Being open to negotiating a truce is in direct contrast to what’s desired by General Friedrich (played by Devid Striesow), who is usually shown dining in mansions that are far removed from the war. General Friedrich wants to use the war for his own personal gain, so that he can achieve military glory and all the financial rewards and fame that come with it. Needless to say, General Friedrich is fanatical about Germany winning the war, no matter what the human cost of Germans who die.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” has top-notch production design, cinematography, original score music and sound editing/sound mixing. Where the movie isn’t as stellar is in some of the film editing (which makes the story look a little choppy and abrupt in some scene transitions) and in the screenplay, which has dialogue that tends to be over-simplistic. The screenplay makes many of the movie’s principal characters a little too vague or stereotypical.

Most of the perspective of “All Quiet on the Western Front” comes from Paul, but viewers don’t really get to know a lot of basic things about him during this lengthy film. For example, the movie never shows or tells who Paul’s family is, or what Paul wants to do with his life after the war. And because he doesn’t talk much in this movie, the Paul character could have easily been no more complex than a character in a video game.

However, thanks to the admirable talent of Kammerer in the role of Paul, this character becomes more than just a generic soldier. Kammerer (who has a background in theater/stage acting) makes his feature-film debut in “All Quiet on the Western Front.” He is very effective at showing Paul’s feelings through his eyes, facial expressions and body language.

Paul is the heart and soul of the movie, but it’s a heart and soul that the filmmakers have shrouded in a certain amount of mystery. Even with some things about Paul remaining enigmatic, there’s no mystery over how emotionally shattered Paul becomes during the course of this story. By the end of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” viewers will be emotionally affected too, no matter what people think about war.

Netflix released “All Quiet on the Western Front” in select U.S. cinemas on October 7, 2022. The movie premiered on Netflix on October 28, 2022.