Unlike its protagonist, ‘Zoolander 2’ is wicked smart.
“Zoolander 2” is an avalanche of jokes. Sometimes unapologetically stupid and joyously crass, it’s often brilliant in its absurdity, one of those rare comedies that finds the audience sitting dumbstruck, wondering what crazy thing will happen next. It takes really smart people to make a movie this silly.
The sequel to the 2001 “Zoolander,” a satire of the fashion world that became an unexpected success and cultural reference, “Zoolander 2” was written by four screenwriters, but it lacks the feeling of something wrecked by committee. Quite the opposite, it’s as if each writer tried to shock and outdo the others. So what we end up with is a mad, freewheeling creation without a single dead spot, with no restroom break and no time to run out for popcorn.
The tone is set early, with an opening scene that’s funny and appalling. Justin Bieber is on a motorcycle in Rome, trying to escape assassins. He doesn’t. Rather graphically, the movie shows him getting shot about 150 times and then, while bleeding to death, sending out a farewell selfie on Instagram. Right away, “Zoolander 2” throws us off balance, with its mix of heedless audacity and pointed satire.
Apparently, somebody is killing all the pop stars, and somehow an Interpol agent (Penélope Cruz) gets the idea that Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and his former rival, Hansel (Owen Wilson), can help solve the case. But 15 years after their fashion heyday, the two are living in obscurity, with Zoolander pursuing the life of a hermit and Hansel living in the desert in an 11-person marriage — a marriage that includes, in some screenwriter’s flight of demented inspiration, Kiefer Sutherland.
It’s not spoiling anything to say that Sutherland is pregnant with Hansel’s child. Is that funny? Well, not exactly. But the effort is. When the jokes flop in “Zoolander,” they flop fearlessly. But they usually don’t flop, and when they succeed, you sometimes can’t believe your eyes. In the latter case, I’m thinking in particular of Benedict Cumberbatch, who makes a brief but unforgettable appearance as the fashion world’s new darling, “All.” Possessing no eyebrows but with terrific containment and self-satisfaction, All is both man and woman and has just married him/herself.
For a movie that’s all about surface appearance, “Zoolander 2” is wonderfully verbal, with much of the humor coming from the precision of its speech and dialect work. Kristin Wiig — utterly unrecognizable (until you read the credits) as a melon-lipped Donatella Versace-like diva — speaks in an insane accent that randomly replaces vowel sounds. Kyle Mooney, as the young fashion designer, talks in an impenetrable hipster patter, in which every word for bad is good and good is bad. Of course, much of the comedy of Zoolander himself comes from his attitude of putupon sensitivity, embodied in his delicate phrasings.
Then there’s Will Fer- rell, with his warm madness and inspired comic thinking, living in his body with great ease and willing to do anything, the nuttier the better. As the model’s mad arch-villain Mugatu, he carried a poodle in “Zoolander.” In “Zoolander 2,” he carries the mummy of a poodle, and everything out of his mouth is funny.
“Zoolander” captured its moment, and so does “Zoolander 2.” It skewers the preening emptiness of contemporary culture with the help of people who are part of it. It’s as if everyone wanted to be in this movie, and so they are — Anna Wintour, Valentino, Marc Jacobs, Katy Perry, Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Wang and others. Despite the participation of these famous names, “Zoolander 2” is no celebration masquerading as a lampoon. There’s an edge to it.
Derek and Hansel are dropped down into a world they no longer recognize. Neither does the audience.