After two days of being away, I am back! The past two days have been totally weird for me. I had no drive. I just waited for time to pass so I can sleep again. I have some of those sometimes, but I’m fine. I promised myself that I won’t miss an entry at the start of a new week, so here I am! Ready and kicking once again! To commemorate my rejuvenated myself, I didn’t wanna watch some downer movie to push me down again. I wanted to see something light and funny to lift my spirits. Where else would I look for other than the slacker group of the 90’s frat pack? They have a wikipedia article, look it up.
I decided to acquire the services of Mr. Ben Stiller and his 2001 comedy movie Zoolander. The story revolves around the male supermodel industry, mainly the life of a charismatic idiot male supermodel Derek Zoolander, played by Ben Stiller. His life changes when he was ousted by the rising star Hansel as the new male supermodel of the year. He then gets brainwashed by Mugatu, a model agent, to assassinate the Malaysian prime minister for child labor. Yes this show is that crazy. Matilda, a journalist, tries to save Zoolander from undergoing this assassination to purge her guilt for writing a bad article on him. Ben Stiller was not alone on this. He joined an ensemble cast with his fellow frat-packer Owen Wilson as upcoming supermodel Hansel, his wife Christine Taylor as Matilda, and Will Ferrell as Mugatu. I really love the comedy between Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (or any Frat Packer actually). Their characters are either doing stupid things together or serve as perfect foils for each other. Others movies I’ve watched of them are Bottle Rocket (1996) and recently Little Fockers (2010). I also love the natural on-screen chemistry between him and his wife. Try watching their other movies such as Dodgeball (2004). As for Will Ferrell, he’s almost always the same in every movie and can be funny on his own.
What I liked about this movie was the change in the dynamic of Ben Stiller’s character. Coming from his previous movie like There’s Something About Mary (1996), where he plays an awkward guy stuck in love with the prettiest girl in high school. He was probably the least funny person in that movie and yet it was still a good comedy movie. Of course we should give credit to the supporting actors and Cameron Diaz for providing comedic chops. But then we see in this movie that Ben Stiller becomes funny because we laugh at him and his awkwardness. Another good example would be the Meet the Parents trilogy movies. A guy meeting his girlfriend’s parents is always somehow a funny story, no matter who the person is. His character tries so hard to impress them that it leads to stupid moments and, looking from the outside, it’s very funny. We laugh at him, without him planning to be funny. The usual appeal of his characters is that they are average and relatable, experiencing misfortune. Imagine yourself drinking beer with your buddies, it’s always funny hearing their stupid stories. Overall, I think his characters do not intend to be funny, but the choices he makes just happens to lead to stupid moments that causes laughs. So we laugh at him. The difference in Zoolander though is that his character was truly outrageous and I don’t think that many people can relate to being a male supermodel. I don’t think it was even a realistic portrayal of a supermodel. It was very tongue-in-cheek funny. In here, we don’t see the serious Ben Stiller we’ve seen in the previously mentioned movies. He channeled his inner Will Ferrel and went full goof-ball mode. He went pass being the center of attention. He created his own center of attention. I don’t know if you got that. Basically, we were now laughing because of him and not at him. He was the primary source of the laughter, not just the circumstances he creates. Imagine Greg Focker standing up without doing anything. It’s not gonna be funny. But Derek Zoolander standing up and doing nothing is already very funny. That’s the difference I’m talking about.
Zoolander was basically a satirical portrayal of people’s obsession with fashion and how they look. I don’t know if I’m stupid, but the conspiracy theories about male supermodels being secret agents actually made a lot of sense to me. Fact 1: People often attribute good looks to good personality. There’s research about that. So it’s very hard to accuse or doubt a supermodel of being a killer/assassin. They have a plausible alibi and effective cover story that normal people won’t doubt. Fact 2: Male supermodels are well-toned and fit. They’re usually trained in calisthenics or gymnastics. These kinds of people usually have the strongest pound-for-pound power and strength. They have the ability/capability to do the work. Fact 3: Fashion shows are home to very important people and diplomats from various different countries. Events like this are very exquisite that no one would expect such a travesty. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet for potential assassins don’t you think? Okay maybe I took the comedy’s humor too seriously, no model could possibly think the same way right?
Some memorable moments from the movie include that badass walk-off that Derek and Hansel had to the music of Michael Jackson’s Beat It. That was totally awesome. Mugatu’s brainwashing audiovisual presentation to Derek to the tune of Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood was also hilarious. Special mention to the trance-like threesome between Derek, Hansel, and Matilda. Boy was that steamy and hot. Although they were joined by other weird-looking people too, which made the scene annoyingly funny. Oh and who wouldn’t want to enroll their child in “The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too” if it was real right?
One Movie A Day 