By Dan Skip Allen

Anne Hathaway is an actress who is in for a big year. She’s already had “Mother Mary” the new A24 film come out at Sundance and in this past week in theaters later this year she has “The Odyssey “ in July and “The End of Oak Street” in August and “Verity” in October. What a year it’s going to be, but she got a sequel to one of her most popular films coming later this week “The Devil Wears Prada”. She is reprising the role of Andy Sachs, a woman who worked for a fashion magazine,  called Runway, and her boss Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) was a bit of an overbearing woman. A lot of working class and up and coming women out of college could relate to this character. Now, the film is getting a sequel where the character is a bit more established as a journalist. Will this be as iconic as the film as the original? That is the million dollar question.

Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway ) is a journalist for a New York newspaper. She’s about to accept an award for her work when everyone at her table at the awards banquet gets a text message saying that they have all been fired. This leads her to do a rant at the podium but doesn’t change the fact that she still needs a new job. An old friend who she worked with in her early years straight out of college, Nigel (Stanley Tucci) pulls a few strings and gets her a job at the magazine where it all started “Runway”. She’s reunited with her old boss, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), who is a notorious control freak. This new job of editor of feature puts her in the cross hairstyling of Streep’s character. It’s not an easy place to be considering she’s got to turn the magazine around after it was embroiled in a controversy. That’s not going to be easy.

Streep’s character is one of her most iconic in her career. She got the diva boss type character down perfectly in the first film. This time around, she’s a bit worn out by the system. The change in ownership and trying to be relevant in a changing world of fashion journalism. Online websites have taken over this world that she loves so much. The scandal that the magazine and she had to overcome has worn her out a bit. That’s where Hathaway’s character comes in. They butt heads a little before realizing they are both on the same team. Streep takes a back seat to Hathaway and the other stellar actors in the film. This is a true ensemble, though. Everyone has their moments to shine. I will always love Streep in this role, though. 

Speaking of the supporting cast. The returning actors like Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton and Stanley Tucci as Nigel have a lot of screen time. They, along with Hathaway and Streep, are the core four characters that made the first film so memorable. This time around, Kenneth Branagh has a role as Streep’s character’s husband. He does a nice job playing second fiddle to her domineering presence. Justin Theroux plays the rich boyfriend of Blunt’s character. He doesn’t know anything about fashion but pretends to. He tries to make up for it by giving her everything she wants. That eventually bites him in the ass. Simone Ashley plays one of the “Emily’s”, what Streep’s character calls her first assistant. She’s typical of this person, always sucking up to her boss, but she is very good at it as this character. BJ Novak, Lucy Liu, and Patrick Brammell all have pivotal roles in the movie. The entire cast is fantastic in this film. It’s a strong point of it. 

The crux of this story is the world of fashion that it is set in. Blunt’s character works for Dior, and she has a key part of how the story unfolds in this world. A fashion week event in Malan Italy is the key to what this film is all about. This sequence is full of fashion icons like Donatella Versace, Lady Gaga, in a nice cameo as the musical guest of the event had a terrific moment opposite Streep. This whole world of fashion was pretty amazing. This main show and so forth worked like a well-oiled machine. Various other montages set to “Vogue” by Madonna are obligatory to a film like this. It makes sense Frankel would make additions like that to the movie. As man isn’t very fashionable, I was lost in this world, but it fascinated me quite a bit. It’s always interesting to see a film about something you’re not familiar with because it can teach you about something new. In this case, fashion isn’t my strong suit. I’m not familiar with this world. I’m just oblivious to it. A lot more people other than me will probably be interested in all of this high-end fashion, but this hopefully will have some awards buzz for costumes, though. 

Frankel directed the first film in this series so he knows what works within the context of this kind of story. The office space of the “Runway” magazine is a key place in the movie. The production value in this location is so spot on. The various offices and spaces in the office are so cool. I loved the inner workings of a magazine like this. As a journalist/film critic, I’ve always dreamed of working in a situation like this. All the little details that the production designer added to every scene were eye candy to me. One who isn’t familiar with this world. The end scene is another one where I was watching everything unfold in front of me, and I was blown away by how it all flowed so well. Even crowd sequences were very well shot in terms of a cinematography standpoint. The camera work was excellent. It gave the world where the movie took place on a grand scale. The film as a whole made fashion big and bold. The world of fashion deserves that, in my humble opinion. Similar in feel and tone to other fashion films like “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris” and Phantom Thread” two Leslie Manville movies revolving around fashion.

Social media plays a big part in this story. Word of mouth is a key to how things work in the fashion world. That’s where social media comes in. Getting the word out on computer screens, television screens, and phone screens is key to how women or men, for that matter, see fashion. The original film was twenty years ago, where fashion journalism was a completely different animal. Physical things like magazines, newspapers, and so forth were the thing. Now, things are completely different, and that’s a key part of why this film is so relevant. Streep’s character has to navigate this new way of doing things in the fashion world. Ad revenue plays a big part in that. That’s where a sequel comes into full vision. Most are not necessary,  but this one has a legitimate reason for insisting. I genuinely enjoyed what I was watching from every aspect of this production. Especially the cast.

If I had one quibble about this movie, I would have to say there is a scene where Hathaway’s character is invited to a gathering in the Hamptons, a beach community in New York. Adjacent to the big Apple. She has to get some clothes from her go to Tucci’s character. He lets her use a patterned or patchwork dress that is a one of a kind dress. He says not one stain on it when he gets in back because she’s only borrowing these clothes. When she drops some food on it, she tries to clean it off, but this scene isn’t paid back in the context of the story. That was odd to me, considering how important it was at the time in the film. Maybe this was an editing gaf or just forgotten about its not a good thing to miss things like this in a movie. Other than that one thing, I quite enjoyed this film.

“The Devil Wears Prada 2”  was an enjoyable sequel if not for one specific reason the entire main cast were all back for this movie in the world of high-end fashion. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. There is heart, backstabbing, and everything in between in this sequel. A key cameo scene involving Lady Gaga was memorable, and I think she sings the movie’s post credits song “Runway” which is an apt title for a song featured in this film. The song was fantastic. Frankel used great camera work in terms of the cinematography to give this world a large-scale feeling and production design to add depth and layers to the office scenes and big fashion show in Milan, Italy. The fashion of the film is its biggest star, though. I was completely in awe of how this world was brought to life once again. I’m a fan of things like this that I’m not very familiar with because it fascinates me to see how amazing it is, regarding the whole world of fashion. Anybody who loved the first film will most surely enjoy this one, hopefully for all of the reasons I just mentioned. 

4 ½ stars