The future in the world of Hardware is metal and not just because the film features cameos by Iggy Pop as a radio D.J. named Angry Bob and Lemmy as a taximan who plays Motorhead for his passengers.
Cities have been reduced to rusting wastelands of decaying buildings and infrastructure, mechanicals limbs are common enough to go unmentioned, and government-built robots with a mission to sterilize the human race will soon be deployed en masse.
Meanwhile, the desert now called Earth shows few signs of life. Humans struggle to survive this harsh, unforgiving planet, everything looks dirty and crowded, and fragile flesh is prone to disease, disfigurement, and genetic malformities. In the looming battle between man and machines, the machines hold all the advantage.
There are plenty of differences. From Dusk Till Dawn's big twist came out of nowhere - no buildup, no foreshadowing, etc. - and that was the movie's big joke. Plenty of people were disappointed a character-driven story about kidnappers and their hostages became a wild, campy action flick, but if you roll with it, it's a fun, cool exercise in style for its own sake.
Sinners has greater ambitions. The vampiric threat is suggested sooner and built up, so it doesn't come out of nowhere. More significantly, the movie makes a more concerted effort to thread its halves together, so the character work and thematic elements don't fall by the wayside. Instead, the vampire angle enriches rather than detracts from the serious drama of the earlier scenes.
The result is one of the best horror movies in recent years, one that makes me hope writer-director Ryan Coogler spends more time in the genre.
On May 31, I attended Theatre Reset's Short Play Festival #5, which featured a performance of my play, "Water to Whine," and I had an absolute blast. I loved everything they did, the performances were great, and I was happily surprised, in more ways than one. All the plays were great, and I'm so happy I got to see them.
The experience reminded me of a few important lessons about writing scripts, whether for stage or film, and I feel like sharing them here.
Theatre Reset, a Columbus-based and a women and nonbinary owned and operated theatre company, has selected my play, "Water to Whine," to be part of its fifth short play festival.
The company has previously produced two other plays I wrote - "Your Child, The Devil, and You" and "George of the Dead" - and I am excited to see what they do with "Water to Whine."
The festival will be held May 30 and 31 at Shedd Theater, 540 Franklin Ave., Columbus, OH 43215. Auditions are mid-March.
For more information about the festival, visit Theatre Reset's website.
In the case of The Train, that something is a nation's art, a symbol cultural heritage and pride. In Saving Private Ryan, the mission is one man, the sole survivor of a group of brothers, whose return will spare his mother more heartbreak and give the American public a positive story in the midst of the costly D-Day landings.
Obviously, there are plenty of differences. Steven Spielberg is, at his heart, a sentimentalist, who sees saving Ryan as a decent act among all the horrors of war, a good deed performed at a great cost that reminds us to be grateful for all the veterans went through. John Frankenheimer, still a relative upstart when he directed The Train, is a pessimist, a cynic who questions the human cost of saving a few paintings.
