ZOOLANDER review: laughter is the essence of comedy
ZOOLANDER review: laughter is the essence of comedy
Dec 23
The turn of the millennium was an interesting time for the breed of film known as the comedy. It was a different time, a time before SNL skits could be padded out to 90-minute showcases of Will Ferrell’s screaming, a time before Judd Apatow popularised dick jokes and ironic bromance, and a time before the Wayans brothers induced a sickening wave of cheap, terrible spoof films: in short, a happier time.
To take a few examples of comedies from the period — Galaxy Quest, Miss Congeniality, Rat Race and this, Zoolander — and there are a few running themes to the late nineties / early noughties comedies: big stars propelling smart, original ideas derived from pop culture icons in need of a good lambasting. These movies all took themselves seriously, rarely got distracted from the main plot just for the sake of cheap laughs, and were presented with the kind of visual and aural flourish usually reserved for much bigger, more “serious” films. Zoolander inevitably made a huge cultural splash, and you can hardly go a week in your life without hearing someone say “Hansel’s so hot right now” or “What is this, a centre for ants?”, or without seeing someone pull a “Blue Steel” for a photo. There is something inherently funny about this Ben Stiller-directed film, but exactly what is it?
It’s partly the physical comedy. Stiller’s face is constantly contorted in a grotesque mockery of models’ faces, and whenever he shares the screen with rival Owen Wilson the screen lights up with hideous pouts and furrowed brows. The various modelling and catwalk scenes spliced into the film help develop the physical comedy even further, especially the hilarious walk-off between the main characters. It’s also partly in the subject matter. Modelling is not the most intellectually demanding of professions, and there are a string of amusing running gags about how stupid male models in particular can be. But mostly it’s in the incessant quotability of the film. The timing and delivery of the lines is spot-on, and the situations are bizarre and unique enough to make a real impression on the brain. It’s hard not to get swept up into the spirit of it all.
But Zoolander never really takes off like, say Galaxy Quest. It compromises characters for the sake of comedy, in some cases, instead of relying on narrative to build a satisfying climax. You probably think this doesn’t matter in a comedy, but remember that a comedy released in a cinema usually has a few dozen million dollars behind it, not to mention months and months’ worth of hard work by hundreds of people, so you want your end product to be a little more than light, fluffy, forgettable pulp. Sure, deliver on the funny lines and situations, but don’t forget we paid a lot of money for a product of higher standard than TV comedy.
The movie is definitely funny, and it’s a great party film, but it somehow feels kind of weak. Maybe it’s the way Christine Taylor’s character is presented. She’s the romantic lead, but she’s also the only main character who isn’t totally self-obsessed and mind-numbingly stupid. She’s proactive, resourceful, takes the initiative and is suspiciously good-looking and good-natured. In other words, she deserves a hell of a lot better than a schmuck like Zoolander, so the requisite romance portions of the film, while treated with some good humour, feel kind of weird and unnecessary. It’s kind of like romance is mandated in any studio film, even if the characters created aren’t a good fit for each other. Contrast this romance with those of Superbad, however, for an example of how to treat romance well in a comedy film.
The film looks a treat. Stiller employed an extremely competent camera and lighting team and the editing is seamless, which is very important for timed comedy to work. The film has its own look thanks to the ridiculous stylings of the costume department, and the cinematography is refreshingly un-distracting and straightahead in its execution, if a little dull. The music is a mixed bag of retro 80s tunes and godawful, repetitious techno nonsense, and sometimes the music grates where it should add to the scene and flow of the film, but overall, it suits the tone and feel of the film.
There isn’t much else to say about Zoolander. Comedy is an extremely subjective genre in and of itself, and most of the laughs you get out of it don’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things. As far as comedies go, Zoolander is great, but it isn’t up there with the likes of the Monty Python films, or the frequently-mentioned-in-this-review Galaxy Quest, or even Stiller’s more recent effort Tropic Thunder. Sheer quotability and successful performances do not a great movie make. You have to throw more into it, more insanity, more drama, more scale, more something, otherwise it just comes off as a big, expensive episode of a TV show which is, unfortunately, the category into which Zoolander falls.
Score: 63 out of 100
