Screening Party

by Dennis Hensley

Dennis Hensley, the author of the best-selling Misadventures in the (213) has been getting together with a group of his friends for years to watch and crack wise about such films as Taxi Driver,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555837336
• ISBN13: 9781555837334
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Alyson Books
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

A touching laughfest

Handed to me by a very special person in my life, I plopped down and immediately became enveloped in Dennis Hensley's wacky, off-beat, but ultimately sweet book called "Screening Party". It's a book any film aficiando will not want to miss.Starting out as an article for the now apparently defunct English mag "British Primiere", Dennis Hensley invited several of his friends over to jaw about the infamous shark movie "Jaws". The eclectic group of people met, ate, and shared cutting, hilarious remarks about this famous flick. The trend was set, as Dennis screened (or verbally scissored) other classic films such as "Sound of Music" and "Flashdance".He and his friends riffs on the films brought me into laughing fits where I couldn't stop crying. The comments are approrpriately cutting, off-color, and wonderfully bright. My favorite reviews were of "Pretty Woman" and the "Sound of Music". I found I enjoyed the chapters more when I knew the film, but all of them still cut to the core. Don't dare read this book in public because it is virtually impossible to control your laughing with this book, and people may stare. My favorite commentators happen to be Dr. Beaverman (she often refers to herself in the third person), and Tony, but all of the people offer zingers that Paul Lynde would love.But, in a surprising movie, Dennis starts and ends each movie chapter with a continuing story line, bringing his friend's lives directly into the book. So suddenly, you begin to truly care about these people as they struggle through their lives while verbally assaulting the films in front of them. Certainly this book would have been successful without this add-on, but Dennis' friends become very real, human, deep, and ultimately very, very likeable. Kudos to Dennis and his friends for sharing this work. I'll be on the lookout for more of his writing in the future. In the meantime, I'll be recommending "Screening Party" to all of my friends, if I don't give it to them as a gift first!

Buy this book if you want to laugh

You'll laugh with Dennis and his clever friends as they poke fun at some deserving targets. You'll also wind up surprisingly moved as the friendships and travails of the Screening Party crew progress. This is a wonderful book, that manages to be warm and witty and bitchy and insightful all at once. To quote one of the films it memorializes "What a feeling!" (and what does she say next? "Beats believing?")

Laugh-Out-Loud Funny...Poignant ...Real...a MUST Read

As a kid I was traumatized by "A Star is Born," having gone to see it with my straight-laced, 70-something, Mid-Western grandma. And by "Jaws," having watched it from the front row of an "under repair" balcony with no railing between me and the shark. I've had some of the same conversations with my friends about the same movies as Dennis Hensley details in "Screening Party." Only his friends are far more colorful and articulate than mine (God, I hope none of my friends read this!). Honestly, I howled at the bitchy banter and rapid-fire, razor-sharp wit. What a fascinating cast of characters, each so vividly drawn, and not an archetype in the bunch. I imagine any reader would see bits of his or her friends amongst Hensley's group and appreciate their humor as much as their humanity. The incident with the religious medal and the disastrous audition were just two examples of what makes these people real, but it's the jokes, folks, the quick-witted wisecracks, and the outrageous rants that make you want to curl up on the sofa in the big fat middle of them all. I refused to read the final chapter for days, wanting the party not to end. I did finally succumb and found out why all that Glitters is not necessarily gold. Now I'm looking forward to Volume Two. Please, Dennis, PLEASE . . . say there'll be a Volume Two!!

Perfect for those who love movies and laughter!

This comic masterpiece is not just an incrediblty insightful collection of essays about classic movies. The characters' opinions and statements about each movie are remarkably poignant and hilarious. But the real heart of the book lies in the geniune humanity of their relationships. It's so refreshing to read about such an interesting group of people and to have their experiences so brilliantly captured as Dennis does over and over in this book. Any movie buff will thoroughly enjoy this book and even if you're not into movies, if you're just into LIFE, you'll ABSOLUTELY LOVE this book!

EVERY PARTY SHOULD BE AS FUN AS THIS ONE

Between Martha, the Robber Barons and Osama, we don't get many opportunities to laugh these days. I picked up SCREENING PARTY on the advice of a bud of mine. We're talking Milk-through-the-Nose Laughter, the kind that, even though the people around you have no idea why you're laughing, they can't help but join in. The wicked funny and always accurate commentary of the SCREEN PARTY characters gave me the best laughs I've had in a long time. Thanks, you guys, I needed that...