TUESDAY BLU’S: ‘The Tree of Life’ and ‘Horrible Bosses’
Thus ends another Canadian Thanksgiving and yet another case of The Tuesday Blu’s is come. This week I’m going to highlight two of the summers best films, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life and Seth Gordon’s Horrible Bosses (Totally Inappropriate Edition).
The Tree of Life
Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is quite possibly 2011′s greatest accomplishment in filmmaking thus far. Decades in the making, Malick’s film centers around a 1950′s Texas family with three sons growing up under the teachings of an emotionally unstable father (played by Brad Pitt) and a loving mother (played Jessica Chastain). Although the family dynamic is undoubtedly the heart of the film’s story, it is the modernist approach that Malick takes – interweaving the creation of the universe within the primary arc – that pushes the film beyond the knowable limits of any form of linear story-telling.
Malick toys with humanity’s fundamental definitions of empathy and compassion, and projects these emotions onto other living creatures, questioning whether these feelings are even distinctly human at all.
Brad Pitt gives perhaps his strongest performance yet as a father of three sons who is tortured by his own feelings of failure, questioning whether he did all he could to become the man he had long dreamed of being. Like many fathers, he takes his own inner-demons out on his sons. Although he feels as though he is teaching them, shaping them into respectable citizens, much of the real lesson is lost, clouded by his violent outbursts.
Jessica Chastain gives a breakthrough performance as the mother and best friend of the three boys. At times tortured by the grief her husband bestows upon the family, but eternally grateful for the love of her children, Chastain’s performance is heart-wrenching and beautiful.
Sean Penn gives an enigmatic but equally strong performance as the grown-up image of one of the sons. His performance is based largely on how he looks at the world around him, and the inner dialogue that the audience is welcomed to hear.
The Blu-Ray of the film features a stunning 1080p image framed at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Track. Fox has gone all out on this experience. With regards to special features there is one thirty minute featurette titled Exploring The Tree of Life, and the films theatrical trailer.
Horrible Bosses (Totally Inappropriate Edition)
Horrible Bosses is one of those popcorn munching comedies that you really can’t avoid laughing uproariously at no matter how conservative a film-goer you may be. Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis star as three office employees who can’t stand their bosses and want to kill them, ’nuff said. The performances of Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, and Kevin Spacey as the horrible bosses are without a doubt the film’s highlights. In my mind Colin Farrell delivers the films strongest performance (while he is given the least amount of screen time of the bosses) with an absolutely ridiculous (in the best sense of the word) performance as a balding coke head yahoo. There is a painting that Farrell’s character has in his living room that…well it blew my mind.
Video: 1080p AVC-Encoded 2.35:1 Aspect
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
The Blu-Ray of the film includes the theatrical cut (clocking in at 98 minutes), the extended cut (106 minutes), and a series of short featurettes.




