Screening Party
By Dennis Hensley (Alyson Publications)
Live show Thursday, Lloyd Center Barnes & Noble, 1317 NE Lloyd, 249-0800, 7 pm, free
Screening Party began as a series of film articles written for British Premiere by Dennis Hensley. A novelist and entertainment writer known for his contributions to junk food mags including Cosmo and In Style, as well as gay publications like Out and The Advocate, Hensley has basically capitalized on the concept around which Mystery Science Theater 3000 revolves–with less robot and more L.A.
Each chapter of the book is a transcription of Hensley and his friends’ heckles at the screen as they plow through mainstream flicks ranging from The Sound Of Music to Basic Instinct. The group lives in L.A., and many of the comments include gossipy anecdotes about having seen so-and-so at the dry cleaner or grocery store, etc.
In addition to recording the various and mostly humorous peanut gallery digs, the book also follows the characters’ own sagas. For example, Lauren “fresh from Pilates class” O’Donovan suffers boy trouble that comes and goes based on which celebrity is modeling in the Gap billboard her bedroom window looks out on. Do we care? Eh… not so much. But worse is when the characters non sequitur into the personal and somewhat inappropriate, “I was a bulimic when I saw this, and it totally traumatized me.” Or, “I’m not really a doctor.” Such moments make the real-life people seem either unbelievable or just lonely and dysfunctional. The most frustrating passages are those in which Tony, the venomous, brilliant queen and by far the most entertaining contributor, is either absent or subdued. The other characters are much more insistent on obstructing the book’s primary joy–juicy, shallow, clever shit talking–with their melodramatic travails.
Screening Party is based on such a simple idea it tempts you to try out the same critical experiment with a gang of your own quick-witted smart-alecks. In the meantime, Hensley and a local cast are doing a scripted reenactment of a few chapters at Barnes & Noble, a fitting corporate monolithic host for this ragtag assortment of L.A. cheeseballs. MARJORIE SKINNER