ACTUAL TDWP2 review thread

[gagacabana 4,089]

Original thread derailed completely, lmao (

)

So I will be posting my review here and, following, I hope y'all fill this thread with your thoughts on the movie as well.

And to dear NUTELLA: spoiler alert! As a fellow tdwp fan I imagine this story means something to you so I don't want to ruin the sequel experience. Also to everybody who's yet to watch and don't like spoilers either: beware! I'll be waiting for y'all afterwards 

With each new installment of beloved past movies, that not only insists on coming up, often taking the space of brand new stories, but also are easily welcomed by everybody, I wonder what characterizes said legacies of "legacy sequels". Whether an excuse for farming millions of dollars at nostalgiabait that we all love to fall for, or not, this scenario is deeply harmful at it's very core, yes, but once we embrace it, let's care about what is happening. 

The Devil Wears Prada was never a perfect story nor film. It's characters were never perfect. And that's what made it all interesting and valuable of watching and discussing. The Devil Wears Prada 2 fails both at it's attempt to be a perfect film and a perfect sequel, which only makes it all the more unlovable. 

The main plot works, and the critic it makes is on point, I'll give them that much. On a technical note, TDWP2 has a clean aesthetic of photography, lazy editing and even lazier montage, and a storytelling disinterested to bring up anything innovative or creative. If the first movie establishes controversial characters in complex dynamics, the sequel only does so much as to maintain them all the same, in the most boring, palatable way possible, despite the 20 years gap. 

It's a story about women and fashion set in New York of all places, it is all a queer narrative, whether intentionally or not. If the girls are fighting over a powerful woman's attention, that's literally The Favourite (2018), or at least, should have been, and that's a hill I personally will always die on. But, like I said, TDWP has never been perfect, it purposefully so excluded much of fashion's queer culture and history, because, well, unfortunately that's real life: one day vogueing was marginalized and the day after Madonna started profiting off of it. Etc, etc. Of course a 2006 movie wouldn't ever touch on that issue, but it's still baffling that in 2026 nobody cares either. Anyways, not that I actually expected much more from a rich white background. Even the messy 6 seasons and 2 movies of Sex and the City are more groundbreaking than TDWP2 in that sense.

Andy, Miranda, Emily and Nigel, our four main characters, are trapped on it's own creators limited perspectives: the sick and boring life of the heterosexual world. If it was to reduce any of these four characters to a male love interest, it should've been Nigel, whose gayness was completely glossed over this time around. Yet, our girls are chained to male validation – Andy has a pointless situationship with an ugly man, Miranda is on her god-knows-th pointless husband, and Emily is not only already divorced and an absent mother, she's also seeking to be a trophy wife of a pointless man. None of this makes any sense, because it's absolutely dishonest to the first film's message. 

(And yes, I am guilty of wanting Andy, Miranda and Emily to lezz out The Favourite style. But cinema is about dreams coming true, about reinventing reality, about constructing a wonderfully new world. And I will never excuse myself for wanting more and better for women' stories, for wishing their freedom and liberation from men, since liberation from capitalism is so unthinkable. TDWP2 finds perfectly fitting to imagine it's women's futures like that, beside a man, which is terrible on itself but it's even worse considering the downgrade from the 1st movie, when all of them are gracefully menless. Which is so ridiculous because it's a film that tries to make a statement about feminism by giving it's characters "perfect" men, as if that's what the entire fight is about, finding a decent partner. But, granted, said issue is a problem amongst many "feminist" girlboss etc movies lately.)

I'm not even gonna touch on my personal interpretation of the main women' sexual orientations, which are all lesbians btw, except for Andy, she may be bi. I'm not even gonna mention how groundbreaking it could've been if any of them lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship (or if it happened offscreen but was still canon, so the events of the sequel sadly wouldn't have Meryl Streep lezzing out but nevertheless, the characters would be undeniably queer). But I will stand by the fact that these characters, not only the main ones, were robbed of a truthful exciting future, full of experimentation and, therefore, queerness, that would be on character for them – Emily was clearly dating Gisele Bündchen, Andy and Miranda fell a little in love with each other, and Nigel must have dated controversially young male models – and all this could've led the sequel to many interesting places, from a sugar baby for Miranda (and a controversially old girlfriend for Andy), to a jealous-driven Emily antagonist. Idk! Anything could've happened, but they just decided for the most safe route. No risks taken, no further character development, nothing to say that actually mattered. (And while I'm on this topic, I'll never forgive them for erasing Andy's queer fashion lover bff, who could've had appeared with a boyfriend, or even transition, but no. Nothing. And her other bff who's probably gay too kind of had a kid that was just there, and for what, exactly? We couldn't know because they kept including pointless scenes with Andy's ex-coworkers, like we were supposed to care. Anyways)

With all these points considered, this is why Lady Gaga is the best addition to the sequel. Not only a fashion icon, a queer icon, a feminist icon, she keeps the movie queer, even if barely. 

That's all. 

[celestiallove 33]

teaaaa 

[calmar 22,764]

I dunno, I liked the movie. A couple twists and turns, happy ending, and Lady Gaga is in it (although her 'character' in the movie is noticeably more antagonistic than I think the real Gaga would be, I think because the part was originally simply "a pop star.") I also wish Miranda's last line had been "that's all". 

[amourssauvages 120]

I loved it. Emotionnal to see characters i loved for so long make their comeback. Can't wait to see it again. And i didn't know that shared carbs calories didn't count

[gagacabana 4,089]

21 minutes ago, calmar said:

although her 'character' in the movie is noticeably more antagonistic than I think the real Gaga would be, I think because the part was originally simply "a pop star."

I like to think it was really just for giggles because yeah, it was out of character. Gaga should've had bumped into Miranda on a random Milan street and discussed about art and pop culture in depth, not that...

[calmar 22,764]

2 minutes ago, gagacabana said:

I like to think it was really just for giggles because yeah, it was out of character. Gaga should've had bumped into Miranda on a random Milan street and discussed about art and pop culture in depth, not that...

There's a youtube short of an interview with the director where he mentions the reason why they bump heads is because he just thought it'd be fun. 

[elijahfan 27,251]

Just got out of the film, I'm not completely sold... I do like the fact they didn't try to totally replicate the first one and went with a somewhat more somber story with a real point of view of the current state of the industry. That being said, that also means it wasn't that fun to watch. They did tread the references to the first one quite subtly and cleverly, I have to say. I was glad this wasn't just total nostalgia.

Visually, I think the film definitely suffers from streaming-era syndrome, it felt quite flat and non-cinematic for the most part. The wardrobe felt more muted and rooted in reality than the first one, which sort of reflected the "end of an era" dimension of the story - thankfully, the Milan scenes delivered on the whimsy. I enjoyed the film much more towards the end.

The Gaga scene does the job, the song delivers and I'm happy she rewore that specific outfit.

[gagacabana 4,089]

4 hours ago, elijahfan said:

Just got out of the film, I'm not completely sold... I do like the fact they didn't try to totally replicate the first one and went with a somewhat more somber story with a real point of view of the current state of the industry. That being said, that also means it wasn't that fun to watch. They did tread the references to the first one quite subtly and cleverly, I have to say. I was glad this wasn't just total nostalgia.

Visually, I think the film definitely suffers from streaming-era syndrome, it felt quite flat and non-cinematic for the most part. The wardrobe felt more muted and rooted in reality than the first one, which sort of reflected the "end of an era" dimension of the story - thankfully, the Milan scenes delivered on the whimsy. I enjoyed the film much more towards the end.

The Gaga scene does the job, the song delivers and I'm happy she rewore that specific outfit.

You're probably the first person to share a similar view of the film with me. I was about to start thinking that maybe I'm being too hater, and because of my terrible movie theater experience on the premiere night (long story short, there were 2 vip rooms and one was having a private event for local influencers or whatever, and they wanted both rooms for themselves i guess, so the theater manager lied to everybody of my session telling "this room's movie got corrupted" and we moved to a regular room which actually had projection problems and it took 40 minutes to start ) idk I'll be watching it again with an open heart, but I'll still stand by my first impressions tbh 

[HotLikeMexico 6,180]

Personally thought this was the better movie story wise. But I think I’d pick the original solely because it’s just nostalgic. 

[Pigatha 973]

I really liked it, overall it felt like a sequel with a "purpose" not just some cheap rehash that had no reason lol, and it touched on most of the points I was left wanting from the first movie.

There's little things I would have tweaked, but it's a great sequel, especially 20 years later. 

[monstertoronto 11,222]

I actually loved it. I thought it was better than the original.  Spoilers:  I liked the first one but I didn’t like how it ended. I felt bad for Tucci’s character and he ended up just being an example of how ruthless Miranda was. I didn’t like that Miranda wins and Andy, after helping so much, just decides to leave anyway and do something else. It was so anticlimactic to me an sort of a bummer all around. This movie corrected all of that. Miranda finally finishes Tucci’s arc by realizing she mistreated him and giving him the respect and the moment he deserved. And Miranda again ends up outsmarting her enemies but the solution forces her into a compromise.  And Andy actually uses her journalism skills to better the magazine and ends up with a happy ending with a fulfilling job at Runway. It feels like this is the ending that should have always happened. So I went from thinking a sequel was unnecessary when I heard it announced, to now thinking this sequel is essential to properly close out this story. It even creates a nod to the autobiographical novel on which the movies are based. I loved this movie.