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Review: Zoolander
In the theater where I saw this movie, the audience was laughing throughout. It's not entirely clear how much of this was the quality of the movie, how much that people obviously needed to laugh.
The premise is great. An evil band of international fashion designers want to kill the prime minister of Malaysia after he announces he's raising the minimum wage of sweatshop workers who make designer clothes for Americans. Apparel prices will skyrocket. They threaten top designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell) with destruction if he doesn't find some vapid, gullible male model to do the deed at the annual fashion show, which the prime minister plans to attend.
"Fabio?" suggests one of the villains? "Too smart," is the decision. The obvious choice for Mugatu is famous, shallow, supermodel Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller), the four-time Male Model of the Year winner, soon to be embittered and unseated by arch-rival Hansel, played brilliantly by Owen Wilson. Female supermodels have long been the target of satirists, but this is the most head-on assault yet on the men.
Zoolander is likeable, stupid, self-absorbed, and manipulable. He gets absolutely nothing about the world beyond the fact that he is "wonderfully, incredibly good-looking." He has his verbal mannerisms. He's about to get an education in how the world really works. He and Hansel vie for top male model spot, including a hilarious "walk-off" on a basement runway to decide who's on top. Neither has ever turned on a computer.
Zoolander comes from a character Stiller helped create for a sketch he did on the l996 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards. If any event or industry is ripe for vicious parody, it's this one. Stiller is merciless. There's a terrific scene up front involving Stiller's gorgeous but bubble-headed roommates playing at a gas station in the style of stupid TV ads. They get their just desserts here, though the movie is as good-natured as it is biting.
Derek's agent, Maury Ballstein, is played by Jerry Stiller, Ben's dad, who is great as the crude, pompadoured head of the world's biggest modeling agency.
There are targets, spoofs and cultural references galore in Zoolander, including a play on The Manchurian Candidate spot-on blasts at the way the media worships the glam/celebrity culture, and the way in which pop culture can sometimes patronize the people who worship it. David Duchovny does an uncredited walk-on as a conspiratorial ex-model whose face is never shown, but whose hand -- used in cosmetic ads -- is instantly recognizable to Zoolander from catalogs.
American culture, one of the most powerful forces on the planet, is the big target here, especially its consuming valuelessness. Stiller grasps the cultural irony for many of us. As much as we love pop culture, we also recognize that it is becoming sillier, greedier and less honest and creative by the day. It diminishes us, he suggests, as well as the people who create it. Stiller sees popular culture as corrupt and infanticizing, celebrating trendiness above all. In worshipping the empty and the vapid, he seems to be saying, we can't help but become more empty and vapid ourselves. He's got a point.
This movie is wonderfully weird and funny. Ferrell's over-the-top Mogatu is great, as are the Finnish dwarfs and freakazoid orgy. The movie has a score of cameo appearances from fashion world muck-a-mucks, models and celebrities, but the modeling culture is only a stand-in for the celebrity machine that has engulfed publishing, music, TV, film and the arts.
This is a scathingly wonderful movie, as amusing as it is on target.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I am the most brilliant person on the face of the earth.
It would be interesting to see if some filmmakers go back to older movies which feature the famous NYC skyline and tweak them before a DVD release.
And I guess we'll never see the Simpsons in New York episode again either.
You forget that big Media wants us to be vapid, shallow, and stupid. If we are constantly reminded of the past, that the past even exists, then we cannot be as shallow as they wish us to be.
Remember in 1984, Animal Farm, and Fahrenheit 451, how utterly the Powers That Be controlled the past, and ruthlessly erased anything that might cause thought on the part of the masses? That is what is going on right now: if we remove the WTC from all history books, then we can forget this ever happened, and go back to being happy little sheeple. After all, the chocolate ration was just raised to 5g/week...
www.eFax.com are spammers
Personally, I'm glad they left the towers in. I don't understand the "bury the past" mentality.
I guess Macs aren't really any easier to use than other computers, despite what Apple says.
"In the computer? Ohhhh...."
PS didja catch the 2001 reference in that scene?
another "quality" nivelo9 comment
It's people sticking their head in the sand with the whole "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. I'm really curious how this is going to be addressed in American history textbooks--you know, the ones that already seem to get all the facts wrong. (see "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by JW Loewen.)
What I'd like to know is, why are they editing the WTC towers out in the first place?
Because they're not there anymore? A lot of these movies are supposed to be set in 'present day' or 'near future'.
Oh, and first poast bit too. (?)
Natalie Portman is an ugly, flat Jewess with no redeeming talent except being on all fours when an equally disgusting nigger wants some kike pussy.
Burn in hell Katz.
Bummer. I feel sad for the poor stock holders who are now going to be laid off.
Ah, intelligence abounds.
It's funny when people try to post replies as anon to comments made about them.
Talk about sheep. Ha! You've proven your stupidity.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
By the looks of your post, you must think what you did was original. Too bad it wasn't.
I didn't assume anything, you assumed that you knew what I ment in my post. Sorry, you loose. Please play again.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
No, your trolling is what makes no sense.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
dude, i wasn't trolling. i made my point and then you started on this stupid (way off topic now) thread of comments.
I could be really cynical and suggest that if there's a war, there's something in it for them but I don't think they'd be that cynical. They do seem to be more provocative than Bush's more careful position at the moment, though. Oh, on the subject of propaganda, try this...
SCUD FUCKING ROCKS!!!!
!scud fucking rocks!!!
!!!scud fucking rocks!
!!!!scud fucking rocks
SCUD FUCKING ROCKS!!!!
lifeless, insipid, flat.
Hey you fucking kike, get on with your filthy life. Stick your head HERE.
FUCK YOU KATZ.