'The Devil Wears Prada 2' Understands Exactly What It Needs to Be

Miranda Priestly and the ‘Runway’ gang return, and the media industry has never looked worse.

The world didn’t necessarily need a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. It’s not a criticism, just a fact about revisiting a movie that ended exactly where it needed to. And yet, 20 years later, David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna have uncovered a narrative premise that actually justifies reopening the doors of Runway: a media industry collapsing under its own weight and the people who build their careers in the twilight of its golden years refusing to be quietly consumed by it.

The Devil Wears Prada 2’s setup alone handles so much heavy lifting. Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) the award-winning investigative journalist, loses her job with a text — the universe’s passive-aggressive, late-stage-capitalist answer to a final dismissal. Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) finds herself scrambling to adapt to a digitally focused media landscape and staring down a forced retirement. Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), Miranda’s former first assistant who approaches the idea of a trip to Paris as if she were commanding troops, reinvents herself as a powerhouse Dior executive who has the kind of revenue Miranda is suddenly dependent upon. And if this power triangle sounds uncannily familiar to any recent media professional, then good, you’ve been paying attention. That is the core insight this film has: what’s the worst thing about media becoming a wasteland? It’s not the layoffs or the ever-shrinking masthead. It’s seeing everyone who cemented this status quo utterly bested.

The magic is the script does not force a sentimental decline of Miranda. Streep plays her as someone the last 20 years have merely honed, who has ceded her ego’s more monstrous impulses for an amplified sense of conviction. It’s such a subtle, believable transformation, and only a transformation as nuanced as this one would have held. The fashion is, as it should be, something to talk about on its own. Costume designer Molly Rogers (who also worked on the Sex and the City spinoff …And Just Like That) steps in to replace legendary Patricia Field, creating thought selections with deliberate intentionality. Miranda’s weathered Dries Van Noten toreador jacket, trimmed with the perfect turquoise, is a prime example of the garment’s ability to reward a deeper view. It’s fiercely idiosyncratic, and that’s part of why it’s so appropriate.

The film’s aesthetic in general reflects a media fashion sense that’s done with the branding and onto something a little more personal and a little harder to crack. To get that old ensemble cast — the legendary Streep and Anne Hathaway, along with Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci — back in the fold would always be the film’s main draw. Here, the four actors fully deliver, playing well within the frame without playing on the legacy like some kind of nostalgic trickery. It’s in the exchanges with Miranda and Emily where the picture’s sharpest teeth bite; they play the push and pull that was an offshoot of the first film’s assistant/ boss conflict on a grander scale and Blunt, in particular, is a revelation of delighted-but-homicidal joy in their interactions.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is only able to earn its existence because it has something compelling and genuinely fresh to say in regards to the world established in its predecessor. The infamous cerulean speech was about how culture flowed down in to you whether you noticed or not.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is available now on Cathay Pacific‘s award-winning inflight entertainment system.