Edward Scissorhands at 35: A singularly personal Tim Burton film

There aren’t many directors with a more immediately identifiable visual sensibility than Tim Burton. More than any other modern filmmaker, his work is likely responsible for each new generation of kids understanding the idea of movies with authorial signature. This is all the more impressive considering Burton isn’t writing his own material. Beyond working off other people’s screenplays, most of his movies adapt characters from an eclectic variety of sources: comic books, Broadway musicals, trading cards, real life eccentrics, the mind of Paul Ruebens. Outside of his animated movies, only one of his films sprang from a character created, which makes Edward Scissorhands stand as his most revealing film, even 35 years after its release on Dec. 7, 1990.