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Book Reviewed by:The beloved and award-winning author of Black Hole's haunting and visually arresting story of an artist's obsessions, and the value and cost of pushing the boundaries of creativity.
As a child, Brian and his friend Jimmy would make sci-fi films in their yards, convincing their friends to star as victims of grisly murders, smearing lipstick on the "bodies" to simulate blood. Now a talented artist and aspiring filmmaker, Brian, along with Jimmy, Jimmy's friend Tina, and Laurie—his reluctant muse—sets off to a remote cabin in the woods with an old 8 millimeter camera to make a true sci-fi horror movie, an homage to Brian's favorite movie: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But as Brian's affections for Laurie go seemingly unreciprocated, Brian writes and draws himself into a fantasy where she is the girl of his dreams, his damsel in distress, and his savior wrapped into one. Rife with references to classic sci-fi and horror movies and filled with panels of stunning depictions of nature, film and the surreal, Burns blurs the line between Brian's dreams and reality, imagination and perception. A master of the form at his finest, Final Cut is an astonishing look at what it means to truly express oneself through art.
Burns' artwork is impressive...lucid and whimsical with stark colors, graphic and wonderfully revolting. Besides the art, what makes Final Cut so compelling is its familiarity, how most of us have been a Brian or a Laurie in similar situations throughout life. What young person hasn't desired the ease of a romance they saw in a film? Final Cut shows us just how powerful illusions can be, but what makes us face the truth in front of our eyes? Some of us never do, and that's the real horror show. It's a bewitching, entertaining journey full of introspection and masterful images, from a comic legend at the top of his game...continued
Full Review
(559 words)
(Reviewed by Christine Runyon).
Movies are great escapism, and why shouldn't they be? An art form in its own right, rich in imagery and metaphor, the cinema offers many lessons that can be learned about ourselves and others just by watching someone else's drama play out on screen.
But while movies can be healing in the right circumstances, and have been proven to aid in "therapeutic exploration," they can also take our imaginations captive and warp our perceptions of reality. Cinema can act as a mirror to real life, reflecting popular societal trends for entertainment value. And since films portray characters with attributes similar to our own, it's far too easy to imagine oneself as the star of the show. When romanticized movies become the basis and measure for ...
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