The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Blu-ray) by Kurt Dahlke The Place Promised In Our Early Days: GKids brings us the 2004 debut feature film from writer/director Makoto Shinkai. Presenting Shinkai's themes of love, friendship, and loss, it's a mild and meditative adventure spanning time, in an alternate version of post-war Japan. Featuring Shinkai's now trademark lush visuals, the meditative story should appeal to those who like to do a little thinking while getting in their daily dose of aesthetic appreciation. The post-war Japan of 1945 is divided, with the Island of Hokkaido now representing a foreign power. Three teens fixate on a mysterious super-tall tower built by a scientist after the war, so tall it can be seen from the other said of the Tsugaru Strait, on the island of Honshu. Hiroki (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and Takuya (Masoto Hagiwara) are working on fixing up a crashed airplane with parts they scrounge off their boss at a military facility...Read the entire review »

The Northman [4K UHD] by Ryan Keefer The Movie: Thanks (or damn) the pandemic for hampering it, but Robert Eggers has made three films in seven years, with The Northman being the third following The Witch and The Lighthouse. Each have been full of sometimes stark, captivating imagery, and The Northman takes that rep and builds onto it. Eggers co-wrote The Northman with Icelandic author Sjon (Dancer in the Dark), and the story is kind of simple in retrospect. Amleth is a son to King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke, Boyhood) and Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman, The Killing of a Sacred Deer). Amleth witnesses his father's murder at the hands of his bastard Uncle...Read the entire review »