Midway through a busy New York City street, Andy’s T-Mobile Sidekick begins buzzing with a call ordering her to pick up Miranda’s order of 25 scarves from Hermès, her daughter’s forgotten homework from Dalton, and her afternoon coffee order – one no-foam skimmed latte with an extra shot and three drip coffees with room for milk, searing hot. The phone, frequently ringing with calls from Miranda, are a symbol of Andy’s life being devoured by work, until she finally tosses it into the Fontaine de la Concorde in Paris at the end of the movie.
Released in 2006, “The Devil Wears Prada” follows Andy Sachs, an aspiring journalist who gets hired to be an assistant to Miranda Priestly, editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine Runway.
The movie opens with Andy brushing her teeth and looking at her reflection in the mirror with “Suddenly I See” by KT Tunstall playing in the background. The sequel starts with Andy wiping the steamed mirror, once again looking at herself in the mirror. Both opening scenes foreshadow that if she were to look into the mirror again towards the end of the movies, a different person would look back.
Anne Hathaway beautifully portrays Andy’s journey as she figures out who she wants to be, weighing her ambition to chase her journalism dreams with the sacrifices she would have to make to live up to Miranda’s expectations. “The Devil Wears Prada” movies themselves are absolutely iconic and so funny, and the soundtrack and the setting in the midst of New York streets complement them perfectly. Gird your loins.
In the twenty years between the original “The Devil Wears Prada” movie and its sequel, smartphones have evolved from T-Mobile Sidekicks to iPhone 17s, the world has shifted from print magazines to digital journalism, and social media has embedded itself into our lives more and more.
Despite how much the world has changed, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” remains fresh and relevant, discussing current issues of society. It also expands on the messages from the first movie, critiquing the fashion industry’s fixation over body size and the lack of work-life balance.
In “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” we are dropped into Andy’s life two decades later. Right before she wins an award, now a seasoned journalist, her entire department is laid off from their jobs with nothing more than a text. It goes to show that businesses are often willing to sacrifice their quality of work for money.
Even in fields that center around creativity, innovation, or human connection, all of which are not replaceable by automation and artificial intelligence, job security is decreasing. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” brings up how journalism in particular is threatened through Andy’s speech at the awards gala. Not only does the scene display how she has grown into a confident woman and skilled journalist between the two movies, it also makes a point about journalism’s importance that cannot be stressed enough, especially in today’s world.
At the same time, Runway is losing respectability because of a scandal and Miranda’s job is on the line. Meryl Streep played Miranda’s coldness in the first movie masterfully, but in the second, she adds a new layer to the character. Miranda’s passion for her job, as well as her worry about what would happen to the fashion industry if it’s put into the hands of billionaires, really comes out in “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” adding much more depth to her character.
Following her layoff, Andy is hired to be the new Features Editor at Runway, a job that she was offered in hopes that she can restore the magazine’s reputation and bring back readers. While Andy wishes to write meaningful stories, she is forced to write ones that are more likely to receive traction online, bringing up concerns about media just being for the sake of viewership and readership.
Although I found “The Devil Wears Prada” to be more engaging, the sequel still has a good amount of comedy, and the references to the original movie will make any fan smile. There are some surprising plot twists, and in the last hour or so of the movie, the story really picks up as the plot transitions from restoring Runway’s credibility to saving Runway as a whole.
The movie also features many fun cameos, including Donatella Versace, Marc Jacobs, Heidi Klum, Jon Batiste, and Lady Gaga, who contributed three songs to the soundtrack: “RUNWAY,” “Shape of a Woman,” and “Glamorous Life.”
Back in the world of “The Devil Wears Prada” twenty years later, the sequel is both new and nostalgic; it is a story of figuring out a changing world and saving Runway from the lens of the iconic, incredibly funny, Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly. That’s all.
