In a time of constant remakes, reboots, and reimaginings, I must say I’ve grown a bit weary. Doing things for the sake of nostalgia is a cute concept — especially when one gets to experience things anew, this time with a fully developed frontal lobe. However, treating movies merely as intellectual property to be reintroduced as a nostalgic cash-grab has soured me on the idea.
When The Devil Wears Prada 2 was announced, I never thought it would come to fruition. Not only does it call for big names like Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci to find time in their schedules — and money in the budget — to come together, but the film’s iconography is too precious to risk. Seeing the Target and Old Navy collabs for the movie with items influenced by the “It’s Wine O’Clock” craze made me especially wary of the sequel. But cheugy marketing aside, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is stylish and polished, a perfect companion to its predecessor.
Twenty years after Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) left Runway magazine as Miranda Priestly’s assistant, she’s now a journalist for a newspaper in New York doing hard-hitting pieces with several accolades to her name. After a perfect ’00s-era montage filled with Easter eggs and nods to the first film, Andy and her newsroom colleagues attend an awards banquet. Moments before Andy is announced as the recipient of an award, the entire staff is notified via text that they’ve been laid off.
Meanwhile, Runway employees Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and Miranda’s assistant Amari (Simone Ashley) are trying to run damage control on an issue before Miranda arrives at the event. But just as Miranda arrives, it is revealed that a scathing piece has been published about the magazine after they ran a “glowing” piece about a brand using sweatshops.
In hopes of reviving the magazine’s credibility, Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman), owner of Runway’s parent company Elias-Clark, offers Andy a job as the head of his magazine’s features department. As she mulls over the idea of returning to Runway with her journalism colleagues, one of them suggests Andy write a tell-all book about Miranda. Andy dismisses the idea, but her friend still pitches an editor about the possibility.
Andy’s return to Runway is a shock to Miranda, as she was hired without her knowledge. Without fully settling into the new Runway, Andy is whisked away with Miranda and Nigel to deal with the fallout of their latest piece with a major advertiser. It’s revealed that the advertiser is Dior, with Emily (Emily Blunt), Andy’s former co-worker, at the helm. Afraid of losing advertising revenue, Miranda agrees to a lengthy feature on the brand and assigns it to Andy.
Andy is shocked by how easily Miranda gave in, and soon finds out that Irv is set to announce Miranda as head of global content at Elias-Clark any day now. This revelation shows Andy that Miranda’s success is reliant on her, so she sets out to do more serious pieces at Runway.
Initially, Andy’s more in-depth stories receive only minimal praise and traction until she lands an exclusive interview with Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu), the ex-wife of a billionaire tech mogul. Runway’s image is elevated beyond a mere glamour factory, seemingly securing Miranda’s promotion. But the celebration is short-lived. When Irv has a heart attack and dies at his 75th birthday party, control of the conglomerate is thrown in doubt, with Miranda’s and Runway’s future hanging in the balance.
I was seven when I watched the first film, and I was in it mostly for the outfits and the 2000s rom-com vibes. It played a big part in my ambition to become a journalist. It’s been a mainstay in my film Rolodex for years, and once I got past the iconic outfits, I realized how much the film was a relic of turn-of-the-century fashion and magazine culture. Oh, how I envy those who experienced this masterpiece as it was intended upon its release!
The Devil Wears Prada perfectly encapsulates the authority fashion magazines had as arbiters of style and trends, as well as the blinkered ambition of young-career journalists. Andy’s tenacity in enduring the cutthroat culture at Runway so she could get a “foot in the door” for her career is palpable in retrospect, and Hathaway’s performance is timeless even after 20 years’ worth of perspective. That’s why it’s so rewarding to see a refined and confident Andy who is well into her career juxtaposed with a Miranda who’s still as domineering and demanding as ever, and only slightly grazed by politically correct culture.
The stakes are high for a sequel made two decades after its original. The first film casts such a large shadow over both fashion and popular culture that a new installment needed to be timely and offer a unique perspective. The Devil Wears Prada 2 does that perfectly, offering commentary on the state of print media and its contributors’ commitment to keep it alive in an evolving landscape.
The film is loaded with fan-service without overdoing it. It doesn’t lean too hard on its ample star power or the audience’s nostalgia. Director David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna deliver a film that can stand on its own. Maybe I will add an Andy Sachs Funko-Pop to my collection.
The Devil Wears Prada 2
Now playing
Multiple locations
