Francesca Steele

Fashion faux pas

The original was like going on a drunk night out with the funniest people you know. The sequel just made me feel old

issue 13 February 2016

‘I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good-looking,’ said a pouty Derek Zoolander back in 2001.

Well, apparently not. Because Zoolander 2, the long-awaited sequel to Ben Stiller’s cult hit undercutting the male-model industry, is a good-looking bore, a fashion faux pas where hot celebrities such as Kate Moss, Penélope Cruz and Kim Kardashian are parachuted in to make a relentlessly dreary script look good.

Except they don’t. They can’t. What on earth was Stiller thinking? Or Owen Wilson, back here as the loveable frenemy Hansel. Or, for that matter, the endless parade of fashion and rock-star cameos? Anna Wintour, Justin Bieber, Sting. Even the great Benedict Cumberbatch, in a desperately unfunny ‘ambigender’ role that’s already ruffled a few feathers. They’re given nothing to work with. Did none of them ask about the plot before signing up?

Perhaps that’s a little unfair.

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