Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I usually try to make sure that the first film I watch every year is a good one, and on January 2 of this year, Morgan and I rewatched The Devil Wears Prada in preparation for tonight, when the sequel came out. When this movie was first announced, it reeked of corporate desperation—it’s been 20 years, why make a new one now?—but I quietly hoped that The Devil Wears Prada 2 wouldn’t be a total stinker. Somehow, not only was this movie not terrible, it was pretty dang good—and pretty close to the first one.

A lot of sequels nowadays—not just the legacy sequels—have trouble crafting a story that naturally expands the preexisting universe. The Devil Wears Prada 2 satisfyingly expanded the world, brought the fashion business into the modern age, and meaningfully developed each of its central characters. I’m glad the film wasn’t deluded into believing the fashion business is anything similar to what it was in the 2000s, and the constant threat of defunding, consolidation, and downsizing felt all too real in our age of digitization and soulless art. It’s kind of funny that this movie had its finger on that pulse as much as it did, since it’s this very genre—legacy sequels—that’s so out of touch with the artistic destruction they’re causing.

All of the pieces from the original movie fell into place so easily, especially the main four characters. It seemed like all four of them had been itching to get back into these roles and bounce off of each other, and they clearly had a great time doing it. Hathaway and Blunt have grown as actresses tremendously since the first movie, but their growth didn’t stop Meryl Streep from stealing scenes. My main man Stanley Tucci was also excellent, and I loved that he finally got some recognition! The vibes were also just as awesome as last time, be it the costume design or the soundtrack and score or the hilarious back-and-forth between these four divas. I also really rocked with most of the cameos, especially Jon Batiste and Lady Gaga, whose song should totally get an Oscar nomination because it, you know, actually played during the narrative!

There are a million ways for a legacy sequel to go wrong, especially when it’s been so long. The Devil Wears Prada 2 settled in effortlessly, like they had never left the set, and I think I had just as much fun tonight as I did watching the first film. Sure, some of the iconic, problematic bite that Miranda has in the first movie was gone because that kind of rhetoric would get her swiftly canceled (I’m glad they still poked fun at it in this movie, though), but just about everything else that made the first movie great was here, too. Future legacy sequels could learn a thing or two from The Devil Wears Prada 2—primarily, how to meaningfully return to a world that so many people love without losing any of the things that made them love it in the first place.