Zoolander returns, to a very different world
Barely three weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Ben Stiller’s comedy “Zoolander” arrived in theaters. At the time, light entertainment seemed so inappropriate that Hollywood was postponing the release of movies like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action“Collateral Damage.” It was hard to say what, if anything, moviegoers wanted to see, but Stiller’s spoof of the vapid fashion industry didn’t necessarily seem a safe bet.
“There have been articles lately asking why the United States is so hated in some parts of the world. As this week’s Exhibit A from Hollywood, I offer ‘Zoolander,’ ” Roger Ebert wrote in his scathing, one-star review, calling the movie “offensive.”
Ebert was in the minority on that one. The story of Derek Zoolander, a brainless model-turned-assassin played by Stiller with peacock hair and a glam-rock pucker, “Zoolander” pleased most critics and earned $60 million at the box office at a time when most movies were tanking. Thanks to home video and cable, the movie went on to become a modern classic. Fifteen years later, “Zoolander 2” arrived on screens on Friday facing high expectations and a much-changed cultural climate.
“Zoolander” was in some ways a response to the decade that preceded it, the zeitgeistless 1990s. It was an economically optimistic period, driven partly by gee-whiz changes in technology (reflected in “Zoolander” by Derek’s absurdly tiny cellphone), but the ’90s were also culturally superficial, marked by the rise of cable entertainment channels, supermodel celebrities like Claudia Schiffer and non-celebrities like Paris Hilton (who makes a cameo in the film). It’s no accident that “Zoolander” began life as two short spoofs for the VH1 Fashion Awards in the mid-1990s.
Those skits, in 1996 and 1997, contained the kernels of the Zoolander character, an amiable airhead whose only assets are high cheekbones and a toned physique. Much of the humor comes from Derek’s difficulty to perform simple tasks — walking, turning — and the fact that his various facial expressions (nicknamed Ferrari and Blue Steel) are actually indistinguishable.
Fashion heavyweights like Tom Ford and Tommy Hilfiger agreed to appear as themselves in the film. And as time went on, the industry seemed to embrace characters like the blathering Zen model Hansel (Owen Wilson) and the evil designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell), whose homeless-inspired fashion line Derelicte was based on a very real line by John Galliano. “I was thrilled to say yes to Ben,” designer Marc Jacobs told Vanity Fair about playing himself in the upcoming sequel. “I thought the first one was hilarious.”
Some of the things that worked in the first film, however, may not work in the sequel. And a new character named All, a transgender model played by Benedict Cumberbatch, already has raised objections from the LGBT community.