Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a fun, spectacularly stylish film, that is not a mere piece of fluff

Since its 2006 debut, The Devil Wears Prada has become one of the most beloved “chick flicks” of the 2000s, a feel-good film about confidence and work that features a cluster of all-time great performances from Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt—who had her breakout role in this film—Stanley Tucci, and, of course, Meryl Streep. Her performance as the fierce and coldly terrifying Miranda Priestly was so good she helped mainstream Anna Wintour to the masses.

Now, 20 years later, the workplace “family” that revolves around the fictional Runway magazine reunites for a sequel that has more in common with Top Gun: Maverick than the chick flick nostalgia bait it seems on the surface.

Picking up 20 years after she worked as Miranda Priestly’s assistant, Andy Sachs (Hathaway) is now a respected journalist, but no amount of accomplishment can save a journalist from the reality of the modern media landscape. Even as she wins an award, Andy learns she is being laid off from the New York newspaper where she works. At the same time, Runway, still under the aegis of Miranda Priestly (Streep), with the ever-loyal Nigel Kipling (Tucci) by her side, ran a flattering feature on a fashion brand known for using sweatshop labor. Amidst the uproar, the magazine, already having lost significant ground to the internet, is in jeopardy of losing major advertisers, including Dior, where fellow former assistant Emily (Blunt) is now an executive.

And so Andy returns to Runway, this time as the features editor, with the intent of revitalizing the magazine’s journalistic reputation. Even still, Andy and everyone else at Runway is aware that the magazine survives on hits and clicks, and ultimately, chasing metrics is more important than distinguished journalism. Everyone at Runway is aware that they have essentially lost, the journalism and magazine world they knew 20 years ago is gone, and they are just treading water, trying to keep the operation mostly human a little bit longer.

Which makes Prada 2 a spiritual sister of Top Gun: Maverick, which is also deeply concerned with the role of human input and expertise in an increasingly technological world. Where Maverick celebrates a world of men, Prada 2 celebrates a world of women, but both films are grounded in the same thematic soil; that humanity matters, that people are better guides through treacherous waters than computers. Prada 2, like Maverick, sees an experienced veteran overseeing a team of younger go-getters making a valiant effort to save the thing they all love, in this case, fashion and magazines. (Yes, in this scenario Miranda Priestly is Maverick.)

Prada 2 not only reunites the main cast but also the creative team of director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna. They work together as well as ever, with plenty of punchy quips—mostly coming from Nigel and Miranda’s soul-destroying observations—and Frankel keeps the film moving at a swift clip. The film runs a neat two hours, though some scenes fly by so fast they barely register. It might not hurt to let things breathe, but Prada 2 is mostly interested in moving to the next fashion bonanza set piece.

And there is plenty of fashion bonanza, as more designers deigned to participate on camera this time, loading the film with cameos. The original cast is as good as ever, and Simone Ashley, Helen J. Shen, Caleb Hearon, Lucy Liu, Kenneth Branagh, and Justin Theroux are excellent new additions to the cast. Theroux is especially good as tech billionaire Benji, who casually and callously threatens the future of…everything. The original film had a bittersweet aftertaste rooted in millennial grind culture; the new film has a sour-candy coating of tech-induced existential dread. Frankel and Brosh McKenna are not unaware of the negative impact the internet and digitization has had on journalism and magazines, and while Prada 2 is plenty funny and fun, there is also an undercurrent of cynical weariness brought on by the slow fade of journalism as an industry.

Between the sharpness of the humor and the cast and the film’s awareness of the degradation of an industry once presented as a dream career as glamorized by Hollywood, Prada 2 avoids the nostalgia trap as smartly as Top Gun: Maverick did before it. There is nostalgia present in the film, but it is grounded and reasonable, not heavy-handed or overbearing. The film has plenty to say and keen observations about a world teetering on the brink of industrial collapse brought on by reckless tech integration.

And yes, there are clothes, so many beautiful clothes, stunning, outrageous looks fill the screen constantly. But there is also thematic heft under the wild style, and the comedy is grounded in a shared human experience of job uncertainty and trying to hold the line when it feels like someone higher up has already decided everyone’s fates. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a fun, spectacularly stylish film, but it is not a mere piece of fluff. It’s a surprisingly clear-eyed story about staring down the barrel of inevitability and insisting that human ingenuity is still a good investment. After all, no robot is going to wear the Chanel boots as well as Andy Sachs.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is now playing exclusively in theaters.