The Devil Wears Prada 2 is nothing like the book (and that's a good thing) — Movie Review

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]a sequel that I love more than the first film, despite that first film being mostly regarded by others as a beloved classic.

[00:00:07]This is not my first go. And I will not be swayed.

[00:00:10]I'm a Grease 2 fan. Hello. Wow, look what T.J. Maxx dragged in. Sorry. Who is this? Do you know her? Hi, I'm Lady Genevieve, and on my channel I talk about entertainment media. Today, I'm going to be reviewing The Devil Wears Prada 2, but I'm also going to expand the scope of the conversation to share some thoughts on the other works in play here. There is the first book, which was adapted into the 2006 film. There was a sequel book called Revenge Wears Prada.

[00:00:40]And now we have The Devil Wears Prada 2.

[00:00:42]In this first section of the review, which I'm going to label as less spoilers when it comes to the first book and film, full spoilers are fair game for both. This sequel book, Revenge Wears Prada, is not the source material for the sequel film. The stories are completely different. That being said, I'm going to refrain from revealing all of the major plot details of Revenge Wears Prada in this first section. But once we get to the full spoilers section of this video, spoilers will be fair game for both this book and the new film, The Devil Wears Prada 2. With all of that being said, you can decide for yourself how far you would like to proceed into spoilers. I'm not a fan of either one of the books, so I don't feel particularly inclined to hold off on revealing how those stories play out the way that I might if I thought that the books were must-reads that I were going to insist on recommending to my regular audience. The author, Lauren Weisberger, did an internship under Anna Wintour before eventually becoming an author of these books. And for the sake of legality, liability, all of those sorts of things, Miranda Priestly is not Anna Wintour. However, unofficially speaking, allegedly in my opinion, and the opinions of various folks engaging in online speculation, book Miranda Priestly is based on Anna Wintour. Even in the sequel book, Revenge Wears Prada, there is a direct quote which describes Miranda's hair as signature bob as smooth as a wig.

[00:02:14]Miranda in the movies has never had an Edna Mode bob, but do you know who has that hairstyle as a signature in real life? Anna Wintour. The first film, The Devil Wears Prada, holds a nostalgic place for many girls and women who either got attached to it was first released or any point in the years that followed. I read The Devil Wears Prada book for the first time late last year as preparatory research for this sequel film to be released because I knew that I would want to review the film. And as I already told you, I discovered that I'm not a fan of these books. Although the film plays off Miranda's intensity and harsh manner of communicating to anyone that is beneath her in the Runway hierarchy with a more comedic delivery.

[00:02:58]For example, you've got the jazzy score to create tension and urgency, but never so much of those things to where you as the viewer are supposed to stop having a mostly fun time with the film. I don't experience that first film that way.

[00:03:11]Overall, that film is largely carried by the charisma and range of its lead performers. And the aesthetic presentation also helps quite a bit.

[00:03:20]There's plenty of eye candy in the form of fashion, though some of that fashion admittedly now looks hilariously dated in a fun way, like Andy's business casual outfit on one of the occasions when she's stopping by Miranda's home.

[00:03:32]The book has none of that humor or charm. The first film and book do have different endings, though. In the book, Andy's roommate, Lily, is shown to be having an ongoing issue with overly indulging in partying. More specifically, it's a lot of alcohol and promiscuity, and this eventually escalates to the point of her getting into a really bad car accident. Some of the details are a bit fuzzy from that book since it's been a few months and I didn't perfectly retain the full timeline of events. But what I do remember is that while Andy is in Paris in the book, she feels conflicted about being there. I think Lily is in a coma at that point, but I don't remember if she wakes up before or after Andy returns from Paris. All of the months of working under these horrific conditions, the abuse, mistreatment, degradation, the chronic sleep deprivation because of how demanding Miranda is as a boss, and now this horrific situation with Lily, Andy hits her breaking point and she tells Miranda, "F you." And that's how she quit her job. In the first film, though, which I'm assuming all of you have seen, or else why would you be watching a review of the sequel? The story makes a small attempt to give Miranda at least a drop of nuance.

[00:04:42]There's that moment of vulnerability when Miranda doesn't have any makeup on and she reveals to Andy that her husband is divorcing her. And in the end, when they're each able to smile when they see one another randomly on the streets of New York City. The sequel book reiterates how villainous Miranda is because Andy is described as having experienced 10 years of therapy and nightmares and flashbacks about Miranda and working for her. I don't think they use the term PTSD in Revenge Wears Prada, but it's not far off from how Andy still feels about Miranda after all of these years. She gets incredibly freaked out if she has to see her again, let alone interact with her. Revenge Wears Prada is bad. It meanders. It feels like it's simply going through the motions. And it was a chore to read.

[00:05:29]Thankfully, the sequel film, The Devil Wears Prada 2, is nothing like that book. And it strikes a really interesting balance of giving plenty of winks and nods to various details and references from the first film, but also maturing and growing past the vapid toxicity of the first film, which in many ways is merely a mirror image of the 2000s. Perhaps now is a good time for me to give an abbreviated overview of my ambivalence about the first Devil Wears Prada film. To reiterate, phenomenal performances that carry the film and fun aesthetics to look at. The opening montage to KT Tunstall, delightful to experience when I did my most recent rewatch. However, the story itself was just naff. It's more than the hideous toxicity of 2000s beauty standards, this incessant fat phobia hurled towards extremely thin white women, but it's a story that has little to nothing interesting or meaningful to say. Everyone is constantly picking on Andy, but we're supposed to be fine with her being on mostly good terms with all of these people. Her friends are delighted to receive all of her freebie presents as perks of doing this job, but then they're also messing with her ability to pick up her work phone, which could risk her losing her job. And they act like she's overreacting to their antics, and yet she stays friends with them. Okay. Her boyfriend is just annoying and his acting is mediocre. I don't dislike his character as much as a lot of the film's fans seem to, but that's more so because I simply find him boring, like milk toast. Miranda, Emily, and even Nigel have their fair share of villainous moments because the Runway world is a shark tank, and it is the early 2000s. So, everyone's just being rude and or fat phobic to Andy or in general. That boyfriend of hers is so boring and annoying, though. I know we're circling back to him. Why are you complaining about Andy being swept up in the chaos of this horrible job when they already established at the very beginning of the film that she has already tried to get into journalism through the more traditional avenues within that field and hasn't been able to break in that way. Thus, Runway is what Andy has to do to further pursue those goals. And then Miranda is trying to gaslight Andy at the end in Paris when she's trying to act as though Andy betrayed Emily just like Miranda betrayed Nigel, which is objectively false. Miranda has already threatened to fire Andy if she doesn't do exactly as Miranda says. So, no, given the power disparity, it makes no sense to try to present Andy as going through a moral crisis of conscience, which leads to her quitting the job. The film has a total lack of class consciousness, no sense of the exploitation of workers by the larger systems in play, corporations.

[00:08:12]So, no, for me it really doesn't hold up. If I want fun Anne Hathaway nostalgia, I will rewatch The Princess Diaries films or Ella Enchanted, not this. If I want fun Meryl Streep nostalgia, I will rewatch Mamma Mia, the first one, or Death Becomes Her, not this. This sequel works because the characters have evolved. The story has been injected with a sense of urgency and thoughtfulness that its predecessor lacked. Yet somehow, the whimsy and sense of humor always ensures that the audience will have the fun they're searching for. What I never would have guessed, particularly when using the books as a point of reference, is that the people making a Devil Wears Prada sequel would use this fun classic as a Trojan horse to address the catastrophic erosion of journalism, the arts, literally any and all media that has been made worse because of tech and finance bros. Before seeing the film, I was worried that it was going to be a tone-deaf reputation laundering product for the benefit of evil people who exploit workers, especially in the fashion industry, but not exclusively to that. You know, evil people who do things like allow the Bezos's to be co-chairman of the Met Gala. The Devil Wears Prada 2, it reintroduces us to Andy, who has had a great run as a journalist, but she and her colleagues are fired because of this corporate erosion of journalism. Reminder that allegedly Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post so that he would allegedly have a propaganda machine to allegedly brainwash the masses into not rising up against billionaires, allegedly. As for Runway, the magazine is now largely digital because print journalism, physical magazines, and whatnot are one of many endangered if not extinct entities thanks to late-stage capitalism. Thus, it's time for a reunion and one of the things that the film has really honed in on is not just this ringing of the alarm, but also the fact that if you focus on these larger systemic issues, you have a perfect way of positioning Miranda as no longer being the primary villain of the story, you know, the way that she is in the books and allegedly in real life.

[00:10:23]The books have absolutely no awareness of true privilege and systemic injustice, oppressive power structures and institutions, let alone attempt to address those in meaningful ways. With The Devil Wears Prada 2 on the dramatic stakes side of things, the urgency and danger of the story feels extremely real and timely to address. Whether you're looking at traditional journalism, fashion magazines, the film and television industry, the issue of billionaires and business moguls who haven't a single drop of artistic vision or creativity interfering and destroying those institutions for the sake of their own profits and power, it's highly topical to this moment. The fact that Miranda is no longer the most powerful person or entity the story engages with, she is now able to be vulnerable in a way that feels more authentic and resonant and engaging to watch. Then on the comedic side of things for this film, it's been 20 years since the previous one and the evolution of cultural and social norms is a fantastic opportunity to explore new jokes. I know I have some people among my more regular viewers who are especially looking forward to seeing this film because Simone Ashley is in it and one of the recurring jokes that she gets to be a part of is that she is the first assistant of Miranda and one of her responsibilities is that anytime Miranda says something in a meeting that is no longer acceptable, she has to give Miranda a little head shake, a polite correction, something to help instruct Miranda so that she doesn't get herself into trouble. Particularly if she were to say something that is not PC, whether it's in an interview or any other situation where it could end up getting out to the masses and negatively impacting Runway. The question had been brought up over the years about whether or not they could or would do a Devil Wears Prada sequel and it seemed as if the actors were not interested for quite some time. 20 years feels like the perfect anniversary release because enough time has passed and there is something for them to address and that dramatic focus grounds the story even in the midst of the whirlwind spectacle of designer fashion and the excessive opulence that follows the majority of the people and settings we observe.

[00:12:35]Considering that the strength of the lead performances was a major highlight of the first film, it was no surprise that the four leads all delivered exactly what they needed to in order to make this film the best that it could be, but I will give an honorable mention to Justin Theroux. I won't say too much about his character in this less spoiler section, but I will say that he fully committed to the bit. He was one of the biggest surprises of this film, though the main surprise as I already said was this dramatic narrative and depth of storytelling that I did not expect them to dig into. There was something so supremely satisfying about watching Anne Hathaway urgently making phone calls to complete important tasks. I really want to offer more compliments and talk with more specificity, but we're going to need to jump into full spoilers in order to do that. First things first, I want to share a quick overview of the Revenge Wears Prada plot just so you can understand how put off I was by that and thus it made The Devil Wears Prada 2 look so much better by comparison. In the sequel book, Andy and Emily have started a bridal magazine together. It's called The Plunge. Andy is engaged and gets married early on in the book despite having found a scathing note from her husband's mother right before the wedding and this note says that she doesn't approve of Andy and wants her son to get back together with one of his ex-girlfriends whom he had run into while he was on his bachelor's trip and then didn't tell Andy about that reunion. She is considering pulling back from him as all of these doubts are creeping in, but oops, she finds out she's pregnant. Also, Andy's husband is an old money loser whose father made some bad business decisions shortly before he died. So now he's desperately trying to get the family fortune and prestige back up to where it used to be because it's kind of embarrassing to have to sell off many of your extra properties and now you have less of them than you used to.

[00:14:34]He was also an early investor in Andy and Emily's bridal magazine, which is doing well enough that Runway and by Runway, I mean Miranda, wants to acquire it. Emily is desperate to accept this offer. Andy doesn't want to accept it because she doesn't want to be put into a position of having to work under Miranda again because as I previously stated, she is still traumatized from that experience complete with nightmares and having to go to therapy to work through all of those issues and lingering festering trauma. Andy's husband also wants her to accept this deal and it's very obvious that he wants to pay out to try to regain more of that status and fortune because being filthy rich isn't enough. You need to be filthy, dirty, stinking rich.

[00:15:15]Anyway, Emily and Andy's husband betray Andy in the end and approve this deal against Andy's wishes and don't tell her about this until after it's too late and we don't even get to experience a scene of Andy telling her loser husband that she wants a divorce. We simply time skip ahead a year after and the divorce has already happened during that time skip.

[00:15:35]Emily and her are no longer friends at that point, but Emily was nice enough to call up Alex, the ex-boyfriend with the mediocre acting in the movie version, to encourage him to make a move as he and Andy still have feelings for one another. So they get back together.

[00:15:49]Audience, do we hate everything about that because I didn't enjoy a single thing about that story. It's just a never-ending parade of red flags and book Andy doesn't take any actions until the worst possible outcomes flare up.

[00:16:04]Everyone is so grotesquely privileged and oblivious about that. Yet the book wants us to believe that the stakes of the story are really high.

[00:16:12]Any sensible working-class person would have told you, book Andy, that you never should have trusted a finance bro. Are you joking?

[00:16:21]Yet The Devil Wears Prada 2 is so unapologetically clear in showing finance bros, businessmen, billionaires and whatnot as being supervillains. I don't know. This is fraud.

[00:16:33]On a global scale. The film opens with a more self-assured, confident Andy than the version of her that was first introduced 20 years ago. The way that she walks and carries herself through the streets of New York City demonstrates how much she has transformed. We get a cute little nod to the first film when Andy is walking through a park and she sees a street vendor holding up two blue belts to a potential customer.

[00:17:00]Now, I myself do not love the blue belt monologue, but it is one of the more memorable, I suppose, iconic scenes of that film. So it's perfectly understandable that you would reference that as well as Nigel mentioning the word "sick" to Andy after they're reunited at Runway. Honestly, of all the things to reference, the heinous body dysmorphia-inducing beauty standards are not the thing that I personally would have chosen to keep in this sequel film, but I do understand the inclination to plug in several references because the first film is one that has plenty of fans and you want to give them those winks and nods so that they are receiving an underlying message that the people making this film know the importance of threading this new story together with the first one that was beloved enough to warrant a sequel film being made in the first place. But the first dramatic punch of The Devil Wears Prada 2 comes quite early as Andy and some of her colleagues are attending an industry event that exists to celebrate various journalists for their work.

[00:18:00]Right before Andy is called up to accept an award, she and her entire table of colleagues receive text messages that they've just been fired. Corporations downsizing, blah blah blah. We know how this goes, right? We're all aware of this ongoing issue plaguing a world under late-stage capitalism. Andy goes up to accept her award and she reveals to a room full of journalists in an emotionally charged speech what has just happened and she gives this impassioned defense of journalism on a mic. Being that you're in a room full of journalists, naturally the speech gets plenty of coverage and goes viral within the relevant media spaces. A few messages and phone calls later and Andy has been rehired at Runway, but this time it's by the corporate higher-ups of the company. She needs to give the company a media boost after they took a reputational hit from covering a company or workshop, whatever it was. It turned out to be a sweatshop. The fact that this film even bothered to acknowledge this issue of sweatshops in the larger fashion industry is one of several examples of how much more thoughtful and considerate this film is of larger topics, institutions, themes and the storytelling is all the more enriched for it. With the recurring volatility in media industries of the film including traditional news journalism and even a prestige fashion magazine, one of Andy's friends suggests to Andy early on in the film that perhaps she could write a book about working for Miranda Priestly. It would be an inside look at the experience of working under an extremely famous celebrity, a fashion titan, and who doesn't love a good exposé? I mean, I would read it. There's a sort of meta joke made in passing about, well, who would want to read a book that's just you complaining about your boss. Now, I personally took that as a joke about the source material book that started all of this, but Andy has mixed feelings about writing this book. The longer she spends working at Runway again, appreciating Miranda's creative strengths and seeing how they have the same enemy now, finance bros and every version of them.

[00:20:05]Tech bros and finance bros are two sides of the same coin and that coin is cryptocurrency, aka useless garbage. I'm actually reading about that right now.

[00:20:14]It's Ben McKenzie's book on the topic and my next review on this channel will be on his documentary, which is the video adaptation of the book. I love that even though I was bracing myself for a fair bit of this film, worrying about this revelation to pop up at exactly the wrong time and then Miranda and Andy would of course have a rift, subverted convention and the expectations I had, which were formed by convention, by having Miranda nonchalantly reveal near the end of the film that Miranda knows about the book deal offer and she has no issue with it.

[00:20:47]I mean by then with all that she and Andy have been through together 20 years ago and especially all the things that happened more recently and how above and beyond Andy has gone to help Miranda and Runway as a whole, all of the battles they had to fight together to save Runway from being ripped to shreds by finance bros, who cares about a book?

[00:21:05]Andy can write it, let her tell the truth. This is an evolved Miranda. Now she's still tough, but she's also lived 20 years of life and industry upheaval since the first film. It's so clear that Miranda and Andy are not each other's enemy and they know that. It was the best and most meaningful way for that subplot to wrap up, so I give that subplot full marks. The Devil Wears Prada 2 has a revolving door of cameos from various famous and famous people, at least half of whom I don't think I recognized, even when we were at Miranda's home in the Hamptons and there were these celebrity guests there whom she was introducing by name. I kept thinking to myself, well, I don't know who that is. In many ways the presence of celebrities is little more than set decoration, set dressing. They're mostly pieces of furniture to make the setting more believable of these various lavish events and settings, be they in New York City, the Hamptons or my favorite setting of the bunch, Milano. Permit me to indulge in the excitement of seeing Milano showcased for this grand gathering of fashion folks. A bit hilarious to see Michele Morrone sitting in the front row not far from Miranda and they never acknowledge that he's there. He's just sitting there. But anyway, Milano. The one and only time I visited Italy, I went to Milan. I did not have the privilege of also going to Lake Como, though I did consider it because it's not far from Milan. As a George Lucas girly, I would have loved to visit Villa del Balbianello. Quote the I hate sand line, do it for the vine and do it on location. There were several locations The Devil Wears Prada 2 used in Milan that I instantly recognized for two reasons. One, they were used in House of Gucci and two, I went to those exact locations because they were used in Ridley Scott's Father, Son and House of Gucci. The exterior of the Duomo where Patrizia and Maurizio went on their first date to a food truck, I went there. The food truck was not there though, that was just for the movie. The nearby Galleria that we see Miranda walking through, Maurizio and Patrizia went there first and stepped into a restaurant for all of 3 seconds before running back out again. I went there. I didn't eat at that restaurant because why would I do that?

[00:23:20]They didn't eat there in the movie. They just walked around the Galleria, so I too walked around the Galleria. But speaking of restaurants, the uncomfortable family lunch Maurizio and Patrizia had with Maurizio's father, Rodolfo, that is the same restaurant that we see in The Devil Wears Prada 2 when Andy runs inside to track down Emily who happens to be having lunch with Donatella Versace. Fendi, Armani and Versace. I recognized this restaurant immediately because of how many times I've seen House of Gucci and because I ate at that restaurant in Milan twice. The waiters were very nice.

[00:23:58]I highly recommend it actually. If you enter through the main entrance, which is the one that Andy ran in, you have to walk further into the restaurant past where Emily and Donatella were seated to get to the area where the House of Gucci characters were having their lunch. I was already in a fantastic mood by this point in the film because of how well the story and performances had been delivering so much more than I could have hoped to see as a follow-up to a 2000s classic that I'm not as much of a fan of. And then you factor in the numerous bells being rung in my memory of shared locations with House of Gucci.

[00:24:34]And on top of all of that, the film had been hinting at a struggle over whether or not they would invite a particular artist to come perform at this big runway event that was happening in Milan. Someone that Miranda had previously clashed with. Now I do remember vaguely skimming information about The Devil Wears Prada 2, which included a grocery list of celebrities who would have cameos, but I had forgotten more or less all of them. So I was genuinely surprised and delighted when Lady Gaga showed up, not just to be a piece of decorative furniture as most of the other celebrity cameos were. She had an actual conversation. She had a scene with Miranda. She performed a song. Truly this movie was made for me.

[00:25:15]You had a bunch of divas gathering to condemn the finance bros who are destroying artistic and creative institutions, not to mention true investigative journalism as a whole, but you are giving me a platter of totems to remind me of how much I love House of Gucci and how much fun I had scurrying around Milan to various filming locations used in the film. 11 out of 10 nostalgia fest, thank you very much.

[00:25:40]Call me Julie Andrews because these are a few of my favorite things. And actually I'm just realizing I forgot to write this down in my notes because I had so many things to say.

[00:25:49]They also I'm fairly certain used Villa Balbianello, which is a different villa.

[00:25:56]I know this because I did not go to Lake Como, but I was considering it, so I was looking some things up. Specifically it's the villa that is used for Aldo's birthday party. They used I'm pretty sure the same villa in The Devil Wears Prada 2 whenever they were having their clandestine meetings with B.J. Novak, whatever his character's name was. Yes, I'm fairly certain that that was the same villa. I remember because I was looking up that villa and I was trying to determine whether or not it was a villa that the public would be allowed to visit and when I looked it up it said no, you had to just be filthy rich and officially rent it out. We will be circling back to Milano, but I want to loop back to New York City to pay some compliments to elements of the story which are more so rooted there. Andy and Miranda both have Asian assistants. The film does not call them that, but I am calling them that because I want to celebrate the fact that even though it's really fun to revisit the characters and actors whom we already know from the first film, I love that the scale and scope of this world has expanded to include new faces as well. Simone Ashley plays Miranda's first assistant. Her name is Amari and she is very cool, chic. She seems completely at home in this high-stakes fashion environment.

[00:27:09]She never seems to be struggling under the weight of the numerous responsibilities of her position. She handles it with the utmost composure. I already mentioned before this recurring comedic bit of Amari having to politely correct Miranda whenever she said or about to say something that is no longer socially acceptable. A really fun comedic bit by the way. This dynamic that makes sense for them. I also love the part where they reference how there were a lot of HR complaints, so now Miranda cannot and does not throw her coats at her assistants anymore. The part where we see Miranda in present day attempting to hang up her own coat and she's just exhausted afterwards. Truly one of my favorite bits of physical comedy from the entire film. Andy's assistant is named Jin and I love how perfectly she matches Andy's approach and vibe. She ends up thrifting something designer, which is something that Andy had mentioned doing as a way that she's able to still dress fashionably despite not having the disposable income to buy designer clothing on a regular basis. We even see at one point that Andy's first apartment in the film, the one she has before her increased Runway salary allows her to move to a nicer apartment, the water isn't consistently clear. She had to hit the pipe to make the bathroom sink water turn the correct color. Actually, that just reminded me of a scene where Andy is talking to her friend Lily, who is back in this movie, too, and this is shortly after she was fired at the beginning of the film. Andy mentioned something to Lily about how Andy is very aware that lots of people have it worse than her and I was so taken aback by her saying this because it was an early signal that this film had a level of self-awareness that the first film and in particular the books, especially the second book, did not. But anyway, Jin.

[00:28:52]An underrated MVP or maybe not underrated, maybe by the time I edit and publish this already too many minutes long review, all of social media will be hyping up Jin. And you know what? She deserves that. The entire engineering design of that scene where everyone is panicking because the business bros want to have a meeting with Miranda in the Runway cafeteria when Miranda didn't even know that there was a cafeteria and Jin says she's stressed out, so she's going to just grab some froyo from the cafeteria and Nigel and Andy express their borderline patronizing concern for Jin's generation, only for the reveal that Jin nonchalantly walked by this table where the meeting was happening. She accidentally dropped her spoon so that she could place her phone under Miranda's chair with a voice memo recorder running so that she would be able to hear what they were talking about in this meeting. Jin is playing 4D chess and she is winning. These are the journalistic instincts that will serve Jin very well to follow in Andy's footsteps. And speaking of fabulous Asian women in this movie, Lucy Liu, Alex Monday herself. Flip your goddamn hair, Lucy Liu. Deflated souffle, Lucy Liu. Always happy to see her show up in a movie that is mostly divas. The fact that she ends up being the one to save the day because she just so happened to end up with half a billionaire's fortune because said billionaire is a certified idiot. It's admittedly fantastical as far as the solution goes, stretching the limits of what's believable or realistic. But the thing about a film like this is that it's supposed to be fun. The people we are emotionally invested in, things are supposed to work out for them in the end. And this is the most fun way to accomplish that without undermining the deeper points you're trying to make in the story where you're calling out these evil institutions and figureheads of systemic oppression and inequality. You need to create a solution in the story that our divas can find to save journalism, art, creativity, friendship, collaboration, all of the things that we love. Andy making phone calls is, as I said before, one of the most satisfying things to watch. When she is running around New York City making these frenzied phone calls so she can land this highly sought-after interview, do her job exceptionally well, get back in Miranda's good graces, show us that she is an ultra-competent baddie journalist.

[00:31:06]It was so satisfying to watch. I recently watched All the President's Men, which is a film about Watergate starring Robert Redford, who spends a good amount of that film making phone calls, asking questions, taking notes by hand, and it was so satisfying to watch.

[00:31:19]And I had the sense that it was going to get added to my list of comfort rewatches. And to not long after that, see The Devil Wears Prada 2 and have it be this enormous love letter to journalism. Yes, thank you, a movie for me. But now, let's go back to Milano.

[00:31:34]Yes, good. Andy was shown to be yet again hastily making phone calls to try to stop this deal that had gone bad. And once again, it was supremely satisfying to watch. She needed to get a hold of someone to stop this deal Emily had orchestrated for her idiot billionaire boyfriend to buy Runway, but not to save Runway. It's actually a gift for her, Emily. A few thoughts on this. One is that the way that Miranda reads Emily when she tells her, "You're not a visionary, you're a vendor."

[00:32:03]>> [gasps] >> A jaw-dropping, scathing insult. I loved it. And Justin Theroux, he had absolutely no business playing this insufferable weirdo billionaire to perfection the way that he did. He was unbearable with that megamind dome cranium and his insufferable rhetoric. I love the juxtaposition of how Emily's story shows that joining the leopards won't save your face. She's humiliated as deserved for being so underhanded and also for aligning herself with a billionaire. But I also love the way that they show how in the end Emily is better off pursuing her own passions and also making a friend. The movie is not setting out to be mean-spirited to anyone that the audience has nostalgia for. Even if Emily has a villainous detour, she is still given the space to find her way back, and that was a really sweet way to end her story in this chapter. The scene between Justin Theroux and Meryl Streep when she is making this attempt to reason with him and he simply cannot be reasoned with, that was one of the most unexpected, devastating moments of this entire film.

[00:33:09]I was really emotionally overcome by how moving it was. I never would have expected the Miranda Priestly of 20 years ago to deliver a moment like that, but it's another testament to how brilliant the evolution of these characters is in this sequel. Following that thread, Nigel, I love what they did for Nigel. Considering how devastating that betrayal to him was in the first film, the fact that they made sure to address that again, not only by having Andy bring that up to him and by him barely remembering that one incident because of how often Miranda has been that way to him over the years, and then Andy points out Nigel's importance and capabilities to Miranda, and she finally has this epiphany and she talks to him, really talks to him, and she says, "Have I taken you for granted?" Oh, I could have wept. There are so many carefully considered details to fully optimize the story, what the characters are able to do, how they've grown. And again, the fact that they have used Hollywood's current propensity to always push for sequels or prequels or spin-offs of stories and IPs that are already established, successful, and have a built-in audience, a fan base, which in and of itself is a cowardly way to approach the arts, a field of creativity, they used that to tell a story that is so scathing in its callouts without losing its sense of fun, fashion, and humor. I never would have guessed I would enjoy this film as much as I did, but here we are. Support The Devil Wears Prada 2 at the cinema.

[00:34:38]Support real, meaningful journalism. And support the arts in general. There are still original stories being told, too, so try to make those a priority as well if you're not already doing so.