Ridiculously good-looking fashion model Derek Zoolander now joins newsroom king Ron Burgundy in making his slightly disappointing but still reasonably funny comeback — all set for some bewildered fish-out-of-water comedy in the modern world which has moved on without him. Britain’s management guru David Brent is incidentally poised to do pretty much the same thing.
Like the later episodes of TV’s AbFab, Zoolander 2 is crammed with smirking cameos from real-life fashion figures keen to show they’re in on the joke and that’s not a very good sign, especially as some of these real-life icons are not especially known for relaxed self-mockery. Anna Wintour’s handling of the dialogue demonstrates her exclusive talent for the day job. There are also walk-ons from frankly tiresome non-fashionistas like astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. But there are always some laughs to be had here, and Ben Stiller’s couture legend now has an endearingly muppety look. The shock of wiry black hair, the eyes, the lips, the chin, the ears: they look as if Zoolander has become a male Miss Piggy for the 21st century.
Derek Zoolander now lives the life of a sensitive hermit with a flowing, grey-flecked beard in a remote wilderness, emotionally wounded following a catastrophic event when his wife was involved in a tragedy connected with Derek’s Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good, and the inappropriate building materials that Derek specified for its construction. To the astonishment of the world, Derek withdrew from fashion — he had decided to be, as he put it, “out of fashion”. Meanwhile, the same tragic event affected his famous contemporary and rival model Hansel, played by Owen Wilson, who is also in retreat from this world.
Now some of the world’s most beautiful young people are being killed, and in extremis making duckface-selfies on Instagram that appear to be a homage to Derek’s own great gift to the world: his compelling “Blue Steel” face. For what is the duckface selfie — what indeed the outrageous narcissism of all social media — except a cultural descendant of Derek Zoolander and his famous pout? Derek and Hansel realise that it is their destiny to return to New York, to find Derek’s long-lost son Derek Jr, and also tackle a new sinister fashion-related plot from the poodle-haired master of fashion crime, Mugatu, played by Will Ferrell.
Of course, the joke is now that our two heroes are the laughably naff and lame and absurd, which comes to a crisis when they encounter the new fashion icon enigmatically named All, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Derek is punished for his residual transphobic attitudes to All — humiliated when he and Hansel attempt to come out on stage at a fashion show.
To find his son, Derek finds himself being helped by Valentina, a dedicated officer with Interpol’s fashion division, played by Penélope Cruz — as Hansel says: “She’s hot — I trust her.” Cruz plays the deadpan absurdity of her (subordinate) role with some style. It is Valentina who must explain to Derek that you do not need an international police database to track down Derek Jr, if he can be found quite easily on something called “Facebook”. She must also explain the hidden emotional pain that drives her professionalism: she was once a swimwear model but was “unable to transition to print and runway work”.
Like Anchorman 2, Derek’s sequel is powered by a kind of double momentum arising from the first movie: the simple unused comic potential of the original drama and also the fan goodwill and catchphrase-capital that’s been accumulating all the time he was gone. It goes a reasonable way, though it depends on quite a bit of sentimental attachment.
Like a famous band playing live, Derek et al are required to do their greatest hits, not their new stuff — and they don’t really have much in the way of new stuff. Z2 is as moderately successful as could have been expected: the only really left-field moment is a thoroughly bizarre “miscarriage” joke connected with Kiefer Sutherland. Derek and Hansel aren’t as hot right now as they used to be. But I still felt some warmth.
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