Someone ought to write this down
Gay
author Dennis Hensley's new novel blends real-life movie-viewing
parties with his friends' witty repartee
By
Brian Moylan Gay men and
lesbians everywhere know the routine. They sit around
with friends, probably half in the bag, making
all sorts of remarks at "Queer as Folk," "Sex
and the City," "Will & Grace" or some
movie that's so bad it's good.
And creative types in more sober moments remember those
nights fondly, thinking that the commentary was so funny
that someone should write it all down.
Well, someone
has officially beaten those lofty thinkers to the punch.
That someone is gay author Dennis Hensley,
and his new book is "The Screening Party," which
follows his successful gay novel "Misadventures in
the (213)." The author makes an Oct. 23 stop in Houston
to read from his latest work.
When the editor
for the British version of Premiere magazine asked Hensley
to write a column about the movie "Jaws" for
the film's 20th anniversary, Hensley had to admit that
he had never seen the movie. Rather than passing up a chance
to have his material in print, Hensley pitched the idea
to sit around and watch the movie with his friends and
write about that. The piece wound up being really funny,
and interesting, and the editor asked for more of the columns.
What followed was a regular series of parties where Hensley
and his friends got silly with movies.
"It was just sort of my friends, the more close friends
who I do this kind of thing with anyway, with awards shows
and pageants and stuff," Hensley says. "The idea
of sitting around yelling at the TV wasn't a foreign concept
to any of us. As I worked on the book, more people would
come, different people would come."
Though there were different people at the real-life party,
the book follows Hensley and five other characters: comedian
Lauren, psychologist Dr. Beaverman (who refers to herself
in the third person as Dr. Beaverman), token straight man
and movie buff Ross, down-home attorney Marcus (who always
brings baked goods), and catty queen Tony.
The book not
only consists of the characters sitting around and watching
movies like "Pretty Woman," "The
Sound of Music" and the gay classic "Cruising." It
also presents the stories of each person, how they become
close through the shared movies and the changes in their
personal lives.
"The people are composites of different people, and
some of them are pretty close to who the people are. I
knew I was going to have different people at the parties,
so I came up with these characters, so I could feed the
people into similar personalities," Hensley says,
adding that most of the witty remarks and catty comments
in the book were really said.
"I did have all the parties, and I would say 75 percent
of what is said in the parties was said by someone there," he
says. "Then I fudged and tweaked and added things.
Some of the story line stuff is sort of true, and some
of it I made up to give it more of a story."
The result is something of a novel, a book of essays and
a running commentary on classic and current films all rolled
into one hilarious tome.
"In bookstores, sometimes they put it in film studies,
which seems accurate but isn't the whole picture," Hensley
laments. "Sometimes they put it in the gay section,
which is accurate but not the whole picture. I don't care
where they put it, I just hope people can find it."
Hensley says that gays are better at mass ridicule of pop
culture than the average audience.
"I guess straight people do it, too, but with football
games," he says. "But with us it's like 'Divas
Live' on VH1. Maybe these parties are our version of the
Super Bowl."
Not only is "screaming at the TV" fun
and interactive, it's also a way to bring friends closer
together through
shared experience and laughs.
"It's like being able to gossip about somebody, but
in a harmless way," he says. "It's like gossiping
about the neighbors, but the neighbors are Kim Bassinger
and Mickey Rourke, and they have sex all the time in the
kitchen. It's dishy and fun, and it feels a little bit
naughty."
As for the movies
in the book, its fun to see them through new eyes — and
to let the narrative arc bring readers into
other people's lives at the same time. It's a bit like
the old "Mystery Science Theater 3000": The comments
are fun and funny, but it's the characters that bring readers
back.
But unlike "MST3K," you've actually seen the
movies in the book — OK, hopefully not "Glitter."
"I like to pick movies that have a big impact on
the culture at the time when they were released, that were
part of their zeitgeist," Hensley says. "Maybe
they weren't huge hits, and maybe they weren't that good,
but they touched a nerve in people, so it's fun to look
back at them.
"For gay people, I think it's fun to watch the movies
that first turned us on," he says. "Mine would
be 'The Blue Lagoon' or 'For Ladies Only.' Those are fun
to watch with other guys. It's fun to be able to say out
loud what you couldn't say out loud back then."
This article appeared in the issue of:
October 11, 2002
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