The Devil Wears Prada 2: With a Defanged Miranda, What's Left?

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00:00:45
Speaker 2: What kind of a show you guys putting on here today? You're not interested in art? Now? No, Look, we're going to do this thing.

00:00:51
Speaker 3: We're going to have a conversation.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: Hey, film spotters Adam and josh Here, coming Friday, we have our top five Meryl Street scenes. Joshua, we're doing something a little crazy for once. We are going to pay tribute to a performer before they pass away. Hopefully. Yeah. We have many, many more years and many more movies ahead of us with Meryl Street.

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Speaker 3: We're going to get into that top five on Friday, and we're going to give our review of The Devil Wares Prada two. It's a corner office right here. Hello, Well look what TJ Max dragged in?

00:01:30
Speaker 2: Sorry? Who is this? Do you know her?

00:01:33
Speaker 3: Do I to know her?

00:01:34
Speaker 4: I'm Andy Sachs Andrea she was one of the Emily's well.

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Speaker 3: What with The Devil Wears Prada two, following up the well loved two thousand and six first film, Adam, I think we have a new subgenre, the buddy fashion comedy. That's even more the case with Prota Towo, which, after some admittedly tortured plot machinations, reunites Anne Hathaway's Andy, who's recently been laid off from her serious journalism job, with Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestley, whose Runway magazine is facing its own challenges in the new media landscape. Screenwriter Aleen Brash McKenna, who returns alongside director David Frankel, adds the nice touch that Miranda doesn't remember who Andy is? Is I like that a little bit? Before long, the two of them are off together alongside Stanley Tucci's acerbic art director Nigel to fend off vulture investors, to defend fashion as an artistic endeavor, and stage a Runway show in Milan, all while trying to get clicks on the Runway website. Now as we are using The Devil Where's Prota two to get to our top five Meryl Streep scenes, Adam I want to hear what scene from Prota two you would pick for consideration for such list. While watching this, when did you realize, oh, yeah, that's Meryl Streep we're dealing with here. But first, given the fashion element of the film, and you know Anne Hathaway's appearance this week on the red carpet for the met Gala, I want to start with another question. Did you have a favorite outfit in the movie, and if so, tell me which one.

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Speaker 2: I love that you're paying attention to the Met Gala red carpet, Josh, all the way from Scotland.

00:03:22
Speaker 3: You've gotta yeah, went through all those shots, the shots over lunch today and it was quite a display.

00:03:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. What's funny is that, despite this review being tied to our favorite Meryl Streep scenes, it didn't really occur to me while I was watching The Devil War's Protatu to take note of a standout Streep scene, at least not initially. I did. However, knowing you well enough, think to myself pretty early on, I really should pay attention to the costumes because I know Josh is going to ask me this. I just know it, and I guess I have a certain taste because there was an undisputed winner. Now are there are great costumes throughout especially Andy's, I would say Anne Hathaway's character, but there was a clear winner for me. And this will be an efficient answer to your questions because, as it turns out, my favorite costume and my favorite Meryl Street seen in this movie overlap. Aha. Let's see how closely you were paying attention. It's the dress Andy is wearing when she gets out of a car in Milan to tell Miranda some big news. And I actually, while while we're doing this, I'm going to I meant to bring up this link so I wouldn't have to have to do this while I'm on while I'm on the clock, so to speak, and we're recording, but I am actually going.

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Speaker 3: To the dress adam doing. I think we've got dress.

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Speaker 2: I thought this could happen, So maybe you don't have to scroll to slide then discrible. We'll see on this page. But I gave it to you and slack if you need, if you need, to look at it, so we'll see how much this means to you, and it will mean a lot if we have the same dress. It's from Chanelle's Hope couture Spring twenty twenty collection Virginia v R. Drawing inspiration. Do we really have the same dress?

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Speaker 3: We've got it?

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Speaker 2: Okay, we've got it. Well, I guess we both share a taste. Drawing inspiration from the French countryside, with references to Coco Chanell's childhood in Obazine and Evelyn So and the Family Discord, who doesn't claim to be a fashion expert, she helped me to try to describe this dress. And I don't know if this will jibe with your description, but it's a long a line dress with a twisted neckline in a version of Chanelle's signature tweet. I really love the neck it's this crisscross twist. And I was trying to think the reason I went to the Discord, and I was looking for some help. I went to Sarah, I went to my mom. I went to anybody who could help me sort of unpack what it is. I mean, even though I'm the one who's drawn to it, I can't articulate why I'm drawn, describe what is it about the look that resonated with me instantly? And then Evelyn said something when we were talking on Discord, she said this, the tweet is what a lot of Chanelle's suits are known for, like that Jackie Oh fabric, that was it. It's the Jackie Oh thing. It's the dress is something updated and modern but harkening back to something classic. I don't know, like this movie is trying to be. If you consider the two thousand and six film a classic, as many do, and I think that's it. I think it reminds me of something Jackie O would wear and I've always loved that look. So that's that's my costume and I'm happy to stop there before going to streep scene. If you would, like Josh.

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Speaker 3: My friend, you might have better taste in fashion than movies, because yeah, that is exactly maybe dress. That is exactly the dress to go with, at least if you share an affinity for Yes, I think that era, I think that style. I am, by no means an expert. I mean yet you know I am particular about what I wear.

00:07:23
Speaker 2: I'll give you that.

00:07:25
Speaker 3: I even brought out, Speaking of Tweed, I brought out Adam to wear tonight. I don't know if it's registering on camera, but my splurge birthday gift from Debbie here in Scotland a classic Tweed sport coat. They're only made in the Western Islands, and she got this for me and I thought, if I'm ever going to wear it for a show, it'd be tonight.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I saw the jacket. It's a good look.

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Speaker 3: Thank you. The classic is what I'm drawn to now with my limited knowledge, and again have to credit Debby and my daughters for kind of helping me learn about some of this stuff. They've taken me to a lot of museum exhibits, fashion exhibits, and we've been to the Mets Costume Institute some of their exhibits, and I found that I tend to gravitate toward what I would say like mid century, almost more your look. When I tend to like say that that one's really nice, it tends to be like a your dress from I don't know, fifty sixty something like that. So I think we're in the same air here, though, Yes, this is Chanelle. When I looked it up, it was described as a gray plaid, long sleeve midi dress, and yeah, I think the way both both of you are describing it is right. I was thinking it's it's elegant, it's feminine, but it's sort of a bit like business, playful, which is maybe matching the character of Andy here or who she is now in this incarnation twenty years later, having gathered the experiences she's gathered, but also having this what she learned in the first film, appreciation for fashion, and leaning into it now with her new role with Miranda. I think it's I just love the dress on its own, and I think it really represents the character well, which is of course what we're supposed to be, you know, thinking of when it comes to costume in a movie. It's just not what stands out to you, but how it works for a scene. So yeah, give me that scene then, and how it does relate to this dress.

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Speaker 2: I'll say the occasion she's wearing it to is a formal occasion, but it's it's simple, and not all of the designs in this movie are simple, but this is simple, and yet it's got an elegance to it. And I think that simple elegance is what draws me to it, apparently what drew you to it as well. My favorite street scene is what follows that. Then she gets out of that car in Milan, she goes into whatever building they're in, she meets with Miranda, and I won't give anything away except to say that, prompted by Andy Miranda and Stanley Tucci's Nigel share a scene that tugged at me, Josh more than it had any right to in this movie, especially at this point in the movie. And it did purely because of Meryl Streep, purely because of the nuances that Meryl Streep brought to it. She simply does not of course, she simply does not take any scenes off. She never plays conventional beats in a conventional way. You always get the sense, and this is gonna come up in the top five for me, you get the sense that she is always able to convey a character's discovery. When a character has any kind of epiphany, wow, do you get that delivered to you in an interesting way but with some subtlety too. And she has a patience to just sit in that moment on camera and have that character work through the discovery. And that's what moved me. It wasn't even when she actually then had the moment with Nigel. It's her having the discovery that was actually moving. And so that's when I went, oh, yeah, it's Meryl Streep, It's Meryl Effings Streep. Who I'm watching in this movie. It took until the third act to get a scene like that from her, one that reminded me of the Streep I saw during my top five prep. And it's not because of something she's doing wrong. I think Streep is stuck playing a defaned Miranda Priestley.

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Speaker 3: Hmm, okay, well, I want to hear more about that. I do like her in this scene, and you describe very well how she elevates it. I think it was going to work no matter what if you are particularly a fan of the previous movie. Because yeah, I won't say anymore, but there's a payoff to it, yes that you know the movie is looking to deliver here, and to your point, Street makes it better than it maybe has any any right to be. The scene I would go for is even later in the film. I don't know if this speaks to the you know your experience as well with it, but it's near the end, and again I will avoid spoilers, but it's a conversation between her and Andy at this point, and I will just say that the line she gives to Andy, boy, I love working, don't you. And there's a little chuckle, a sideways laugh she adds to it, I won't give more to the context of the scene, but there's a reason why the laugh is instrumental. And yeah, a lot of the things you brought up are so on point about the patients and letting moments play out and finding different ways to play a moment. I think that's what the patience allows. You know, if you're not compressing everything you want to get to in a scene in a quick hit, then it allows you to find a few other notes and make everything more nuanced and richer. And I think she does here too, and this notion too, of boy, I love working, don't you. It points to the really complicated, nuanced character study about workplace relationships, especially in highly competitive environments, that both films gesture at. I think this one maybe gets a little bit closer to saying some interesting things about even though I agree with you there is a defanged Miranda Priestley here. I found that to be It allowed her to be a bit more interesting than she was in the first movie, where she was, you know, a whole lot of fun and got that one moment where she gets bad news from her husband and is crestfallen, and we see another side of her, But other than that, is there to be fun for us here. I think the movie gives her a little bit more to do, And in this moment in particular, they make something of this idea of the sort of personalities drawn to this sort of environment and how you know, it's the artist temperament thing in a lot of ways, like do you have to be cruel to be a great artist? And if that's the case, should you be a great artist? You know, these are well traveled ideas that again the Devil Wears Productuo brings into the light. I don't know if it chews on it as much as I might have liked, but I did find myself liking this movie, and I didn't really like the first one at all, So for me, it marked a little bit of an improvement.

00:14:28
Speaker 2: If I recall my reaction to the original, I was pretty mixed on it. I didn't have overall a positive reaction. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't overly positive on it either, And that's kind of where I fall on this, Like, as a sequel goes, and I'm going to get into its sins as a sequel, but as a sequel goes, there are many that commit far more egregious sins, far more egregiously than this movie does. Like this is pretty much harmless fun at the theater, And there's only one choice it makes that we may get to as a little bit of spoiler talk that sort of made me angry, Josh, I can actually say that there's one one choice. That said, I'll try to articulate what held me back from really embracing this film. And you're right about that line. The I love working line and the way she delivers it because it does finally unlock that character in an interesting way. It allows us to understand that character. But I'll try to explain why I don't think this version of a D thingned the version we get here on screen of this D thing Miranda Priestley works. And here I'm gonna help you out. You can thank me later. You can use all of this in your master's thesis. Okay, Oh wonderful. Yeah, just serving it up for you. What did William Blake say about Milton? Yes, I'm going to William Blake and Milton for my Devil Wears Prada too. After all, the devil is in the title that with Paradise Lost, that Milton was on the side of Satan without knowing it, because he made him the most interesting character with all the best lines right right, and you can see you can see where I'm going the obvious connection to the Devil Wears Prada with Miranda who cares that goody two shoes. Andy's the protagonists, of course, all the best quotes and all the best the really juicy scenes are Miranda's all that sarcasm and spite and to borrow a term that she uses herself in this movie that I love and is apt imperiousness. Who cares? If those aspects of her character are all way more alluring than anything Hathaway's character is bringing to this fine But the thing is in the Devilwares product too. I'm going to suggest that she's not just the more fun alluring character. But to where you were going, Josh, I think she's truly or she has the potential to be truly the more interesting, complicated character one or accept I would say. The problem is the filmmakers, of course, not only do keep the focus on Andy, She's still the protagonist. Hathaway's still the main character, but they don't really take advantage of opportunities to develop Miranda, And you know, I can get on board with the idea of not just retreading the same monster making the same mean quips as she did last time, giving us a Miranda who, especially at the beginning, we see has actually been humbled, a Miranda who actually needs Andy that really does have potential. And where you see that potential is for me. In a scene like the one where Andy in the office sees Miranda, and if I recall it correctly, she sees her hanging up her own coat. And that's kind of a callback, isn't it to the first movie and the way she would just throw her coat at people? And if I do remember it correctly, isn't she's struggling even a little bit tanging her coat up in that scene. And so having Andy, yeah, having Andy spy Miranda Priestley in this little private moment of hell, that that's interesting, you know, And and genuinely later expressing uncertainty with her her sense of self, if she might be who she might be without this life, without this job. That's engaging. That's really engaging. Where it's not engaging, though, Josh, and what we get I think far too much of in this film. It just dominates the movie. Is Miranda being chastened by her assistant in staff meetings for saying things HR has now deemed inappropriate and they're not really funny, and struggling to use terms like body positive when we know she really wants to say fat or when or when she gets on a plane and has to fly with the unwashed masses in steerage due to budget cuts at runway, but still thinks her assistant is going to be able to get her a glass of champagne before takeoff. I can see how in theory, maybe on note cards or something that seemed hilarious in the development Miranda Priestley writing economy class middle seat no less, which, of course, by the way, never would have happened, even in this fantasy scenario where Miranda Priestley has to ride in the back like they're gonna put her in the middle seat whatever. Sure nothing about that sequence is even slightly funny. And there are just so many of those. Boy, Miranda, isn't she so out of touch moments? It's like they wanted to make her a little warmer, a little more vulnerable. I mean, she certainly is. They wanted to make her more vulnerable they wanted to make her more human, but mostly what I felt like they did was strip away a lot of her spirit and give that spirit to Hathaway's character, or try to.

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Speaker 4: So he said that that we need, I mean, Runway needs to take control of the narrative of the Speed Pash story and restore credibility, and he thought someone with my expertise would be a good idea. But I thought that for sure you had approved, and we're excited, and that's why I came in here, like, oh.

00:20:23
Speaker 3: I think Streep salvages enough moments and definitely moments with Hathaway and with Tucci the one you called out actually that were the saving grace for me for the movie. But you're touching on something here that's related, because every scene you described does fall flat, and it's somewhat connected to what I found to be the larger you know, take a zoom out basically and consider this new context twenty years later, that protatu is coming out in and a scene like Miranda having to you know, sit with the common folk touches on this the wealth gap notion, right, it existed in two thousand and six, and that it's even more of a reality now. In the United States in particular, Right, is this something that a movie like this needs to tackle? You know, probably not for what it's trying to do. Does it touch on it? It actually does a fair amount in scenes like you've talked about. How about the early scene where Emily is she's now working for Miranda, but she's trying to do serious pieces for the magazine, and so Andy asks a question about the cost of luxury purses, right, and is kind of making a point of like, well, they're pushed on people who can't afford them and creating this sort of this nee or this want. And so I was like, oh, that's interesting. Is anything going to be done with that? Maybe ten fifteen minutes later, there's this long section where Andy is wooed by going to Miranda's house at the Hampton's and that whole sequence the celebrity cameos. It's wealth porn, it's status porn. Basic yes, right, yes, And you know, I'm just thinking, here, what is this movie saying about any of this? And I don't think it's saying much. And I had a similar issue with the first film, the moments here about Miranda's language and calling out, you know, using the wrong language for plus sized or whatever. The first film tried to have it both ways with all these jokes about how quote unquote fat Andy was, even though her the size that you know she was was completely well below average for the American woman.

00:22:34
Speaker 5: Right.

00:22:35
Speaker 3: So I kept thinking for the first film and then watching some of this stuff for this one, it's not hypocritical. What is it these elements about these movies that bother me? And it's that they're The word I finally stumbled upon is they're mealy mouthed, that they're just kind of like they've got something in their mouth and they're just kind of like, you know, sort of half chewing on it, and you know, it dribbles out with a thought this way here and dribbles out with a thought that way there. I think it was more a problem in the first film. I think it's still a problem here. Didn't completely derail it for me, but just worth considering now that we're watching this movie these characters twenty years later. But I think it is connected to what you're talking about. And at the same time, I want to maybe argue against myself here and defended a little bit because I was actually glad it at least touched on a few notions like fast fashion, or like corporate restructuring and how that is dealt with, or the nods to the implosion of journalism. I mean, is any of this really wrestled with? No, But I think the corporate restructuring thing and the journalism thing are at least given fair screen time and used as a little more than plot points, and at least gave me something to think about, even though the primary charm was the interaction among the three leads.

00:24:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's all fair. And to your point earlier about wealth porn, Andy at one point upgrades her apartment. And here I'll be mister factchecker and say that I don't care what newspaper she was working for and how successful it was and how many awards she won. If she only doubled her salary, there's no world in which she buys that apartment or she starts renting that apartment okay in New York. No no universe where that happens. But as viewers, it feels like the movie entirely wants us to root for her to upgrade and get that new place. Of course we do, and here's what she deserves.

00:24:42
Speaker 3: That here's the problem with that, though Adam is like any viewer is too smart for that, Like Y, they should know this, this is this was the joke with friends, like what thirty years ago that the friends held there, you know. So it's just something that you just can't do at this point.

00:24:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, she need a two thousand percent raise. There's just no exactly, there's no possibility. So I said I would get into the to the sequel stuff a little bit and at least our family members will know what I'm talking about here. I wonder if you thought about this at all. Apparently not because you even though you have a tempered reaction, you liked it more than I did. But in our recent ask Us Anything Bonus Content, we addressed a question from a family member about the length of movies, especially Hollywood movies these days, that I think you kind of threw out just at the end. You put a closer on there about how look, if Citizen Came, which we had just talked about on the show, can get it all done in an hour and fifty nine minutes, then what excuse does some of these other movies have? And of course, how long is The Devilwar's product too? I'm sure you looked at the right time. It's an hour fifty nine, baby, And so I don't know if I should give it credit for everything it squeezes in in an hour fifty nine or penalize it for packing in so much that it actually has to hit an hour fifty nine. And as I said, as far as sequels go, there are some recently, certainly over the past few years, that commit many more sins, and this is far more watchable. But I think that there are some common sins on the screen here. There is you said it in the setup. There is so much plot here. There's the bagging, the white whale interview. I'm not even gonna touch on some things. There's the bagging the white whale interview. There's a billionaire's death, there's the management consultants that you mentioned. And I take your point, and I'm not going to really argue with you, except I am going to say that for a movie that this will go back to the veracity part, for a movie that at least positions itself in this real world of clickbait and corporate takeovers and media mergers and journalists being acted, almost none of those people really, none of those people talk or act like real management consultants. There's nothing they say or do, of course, not that it sounds like any any of those people would behave. The first movie went to Paris, This one, of course, is going to go to Milan. There's even an almost with the music to tipping you off to this. There's almost a James Bond like plot at one point, and then and then the bloat, all the cameos, And I know, I know that part of the fun here with these movies, I do understand it. And you heard me speak earlier to how much I loved that dress. I genuinely love that dress. I really do. Part of the fun is the fashion and seeing all these characters in these dresses, and there's plenty of it here. But did we really need an entire montage in Milan, like three minutes in Milan of our main characters just coming and going out of hotels and out of cars and up escalators or whatever, in different outfits and different outfits. It's just that's just fashion porn, beyond the fashion porn that the entire movie already is functioning as. And you know what we really don't need. I have to assume you agree with me on this though you haven't you haven't hinted at it yet. What we really didn't need? That just adds more to the plot and more to the run time the romance. Talk about playing the hits. You gotta have a boyfriend, you got to go overseas, you gotta have a fashion montage. There are just certain expectations and boxes this movie. It seems felt like it had to hit.

00:28:34
Speaker 3: Well, let me say, and one of the things I was going to propose to you. Although we've spent an awful lot of time, so I don't know if we want to go through this entirely, but I thought, let's do this speaks to your point of how blow tod this thing is. Let's do a supporting cast run down. They get a plus, they get a minus, or they get a benign. There are so many supporting players in this thing, huh. Too many for us to do this, but let's just do it. Related to your point here, Patrick Bramle, as Peter the contractor of that easily attainable building that Andy moves into, he's built it out. I considered him a plus Adam. I was happy whenever he showed up. I think he might be the Australian. I was unfamiliar with him before. I think he might be the Australian Chris O'Dowd, who I believe was the Irish in Bridesmaids. What do we say, was he the Irish Paul Rudd? I don't know he was. He was something like that in Bride'smaids. Just a delight. You were happy whenever he showed up to be the charming love interests Patrick Bramle here, I was happy and I thought, Okay, Hathaway's great with him. I thought their scenes were sweet. I thought it was great that she was meeting somebody I could have easily cut.

00:29:48
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:29:48
Speaker 3: I really liked bj Novak, you know, really, no.

00:29:54
Speaker 2: Big, that's a big he was.

00:29:56
Speaker 3: He was a minus.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: He was a minus. And I go back to Brammel for a second. Okay, yeah, yeah, I can be conflicted on this. I think you're conflating two things, and that is I've never seen him before on screen. I agree with you, loved every time he showed up on screen as a presence, liked their chemistry, liked him as a performer. That works. I still, though, overall, don't think that in higher subplot really is an advantage to the film.

00:30:25
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it's building out Andy's life, and there's just a lot more I could have trimmed before I would have gotten to that. Actually, so yeah, yeah, let's not go through all the characters. There's there's just too many. But I think overall there's there's Yeah, if you had rethought some xciz some, this movie would have been better off. Can I give a little praise though, to Tucci, who, you know, I think is kind of one of those actors you just know, we'll give you something when they show up that you'll be glad they popped on the screen. And that's particularly the case here in The Devil Where's Proud of Movies? I thought he got an incredibly nice moment here, and it's actually related to the scene I picked from you know with Streep talking about, you know, work and how much he loves work. This is where Andy comes in to tell him that Runway the magazine's going to be gutted by bj Novak as the you know, succession style air who's who's taking things apart, and she brings this news to him he's the art director while he's looking over a bunch of photos on a table and trying to make some decisions over which ones they want to use, and she says, what, you know, he's he's pretty calm about this news, and she's like demanding more of a reaction from him, and he just says, you know what, I think. I think I like the bag crossbody.

00:31:49
Speaker 2: Yes, that's what I'm a nice, nice moment of writing and acting.

00:31:52
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and he circles the photo he chooses and goes on and it just it did. I think this is one of the elements where I think the media landscape consideration. It's it's still in a fantasy world, but it does hit some nice beats there because he's just saying, at the end of the day, when you have no power, it's still about the work that you love.

00:32:12
Speaker 2: That's it.

00:32:12
Speaker 3: And especially in a creative field like It's, it's going to be crushing, but it might not kill you if you still find a way to do this career work that you love. And I just thought that was a moment where Twoci did more than come in with, you know, a witty one liner that makes us chuckle. I think he does some good work here.

00:32:32
Speaker 2: That's it. I had the same response it's him reflecting the only thing he can do what he has always done, which is focus on the work. But it is also as well, it's it's double. He doesn't want to let his guard down in front of Andy. He has to maintain the Nigel facade of always being in control. And that's why as soon as she leaves, we do get him letting his guard down a little bit and kind of slumping in the chair and showing, yeah, he is taking this hard. And so that's that's why I think that moment works on a couple of different levels. I think maybe we should leave this review letting everybody just hang in suspense on thumbs down, thumbs up, or benign on Josh's reaction to justin Throw. Don't say it, well, don't say it. Don't betray anything, Josh.

00:33:22
Speaker 3: Can I betray that. I didn't realize it was justin Throw until probably I took these fourths his fourth scene.

00:33:31
Speaker 2: It took me a while too, because I didn't realize that was his forehead. Yeah, and it still might not be because I don't know how much makeup was involved, but it's true it did take me a while as well. I do you want to hear my My one thought related to a supporting character that made me angry is.

00:33:49
Speaker 3: This is this spoiler. I love that we're going to do spoiler content with the Devil Prata.

00:33:54
Speaker 2: Too, So I want to make sure.

00:33:56
Speaker 3: I've been waiting to have someone explain the movie to me so I could figure it out.

00:34:00
Speaker 2: Now we're going to unpack the plot to the Devil. Where's Prada? Finally? And there's so much of it? Are we? Are we good? Are we ready to move on? Actually?

00:34:07
Speaker 3: You joke, but there were there were things I had to clarify afterwards where I was like, I'm sure, who was that again? And why? And Yeah. The one thing in terms of the story I have to say is, and because I'm very proud of this phrase that I came up when I when I was writing my review, you realize this whole movie, the whole predicament is solved by a lux makana, A louxmakana. Yeah, it probably works better in print. Well done anyway. Yeah, so what's let's do your spoiler?

00:34:33
Speaker 2: Okay, so we're ending the review proper right in. Tell us your thoughts about the movie. We know lots of people are seeing it, We know lots of people are liking it. You can tell me that I have impeccable taste in clothes but not movies. I'm being too hard on the devil worst product to feedback at filmspotting dot net or feedback at filmspotting dot com. Yes, that's right. We're gonna start transitioning to the new the new email address if people can handle it.

00:35:00
Speaker 3: Like Runway magazine, We're just blazing into the new media era.

00:35:04
Speaker 2: That's it. Okay, So the one part of this film where I just said, I'm I'm mostly okay with all this sequel crap, And what I mean is, yes, I articulated that I was aware of it. It was weighing the movie down for me, but it it wasn't completely ruining the experience for me like a lot of sequels, like is the case with a lot of sequels. The one moment where I just said, oh man, you're just you're you're just spoiling it. You're waving the flag, You're making it too obvious, what's what's happening here? The trick is for a movie like this to make you forget, at least for parts for sections that you're watching a product intended for mass consumption, and it just it set fire to that notion. In the penultimate scene, I think, and it's the reconciliation between Andy and Emily. Emily yep, who is played by Emily Blunt.

00:36:08
Speaker 3: Makes no sense any level.

00:36:11
Speaker 2: Maybe the only surprising turn in this script Josh was making Emily Blunt's character Emily a backstabbing I thought in the moment, I can't believe they the filmmakers were willing to make Emily Blunt one of this trifecta, one of the bankable stars of this movie hateable. They're all stars and they're all beloved characters. That's partly why they're remaking this film is they've got these three stars. They are all in their own way. To borrow a term from this scene, they are all in their own way because of this first movie iconic characters. And what you realize watching that scene is that the only function, the only purpose for that scene is that they couldn't do it. They couldn't stick to they couldn't have their conviction, They couldn't let the audience leave the theater having negative thoughts or hating Emily, Emily the character or Emily Blunt the actress, which which I think fans of the movie would. I think fans of the movie would actually use this against Emily Blunt the actress, but certainly Emily the character they had to leave open, certainly the potential for a third movie with the star power of the entire trio behind it, promoting the movie and everything that comes with that, and they need Emily that character to be part of the trio. They need her to be part of the gang with Andy and Miranda. She can't be on the outside looking in. She can't be exiled like we think she is at the point of the reconciliation scene. And as you already said, nothing about the scene based on where we're at in the movie. Nothing about the scene itself is believable in any way, including that Andy would. I know, Andy's portrayed the way Halfaway portrays her, and she's written she's a little naive, she's overly earned. Instance here, she's a little prone to forgiveness. But even with all of that set I did not buy in this moment that Andy would so easily forgive her and you just see through it. I think anybody watching it can see through it that they just couldn't leave. They couldn't end the movie on a note where viewers didn't like Emily.

00:38:40
Speaker 3: Wow, I didn't even think about, you know, the reasoning and the strategizing about a third movie behind that, But you're probably right, Yeah, it just it doesn't work on a character level for either of them. A plot level. Really, it doesn't work at all. Maybe the only thing I liked about it related to the mealy mouthed jabs about you know, eating and weight and everything in the first film. At least here the two of them eat some carbs. Emily makes a joke about it, but they're they're eating some bread together, whereas you know, the first film ends with poor Andy at a breakfast diner meeting her boyfriend and like she's not even having a single thing in front of her. So they're at least starting.

00:39:22
Speaker 5: To allow the characters to eat here. At the end of Protitude, I wonder, Josh, I'm gonna go with my theory here. I wonder if they actually tested it and audience is hated and.

00:39:34
Speaker 2: That was one of their notes. So they hated leaving Emily in that way, and they shot it and added it because Josh, here's another bit of evidence. Maybe Emily blunts hair had changed color for another movie, and that's why I have she has different color hair, and Andy addresses it and says, nice hair. Maybe that's why.

00:39:54
Speaker 3: I mean, it's totally possible, and who knows what test audiences want, But I do think we should give general audiences and fans of these movies credit in that. I actually think they would relish if Emily turned villainess and that propelled a third movie in which she was I mean, it's like turn her into Foam Miranda, you know, make her that character, and oh, I'm gonna up talking because if they aren't planning a three, I think I'm putting some great ideas out there, and I don't know if I need that to happen.

00:40:28
Speaker 2: I could be josh more inclined to give audiences that credit, but I definitely don't give studio executives that credit. I don't think they'd they'd be comfortable enough or confident enough to leave the movie on that note. With that, agree, we'll leave you on Yeah, we'll leave you on this note. Let us know your thoughts about The Devil Wears Prada too, and tune in Friday for our top five Meryl Streep scenes it doesn't sound like any scenes from this movie or maybe The Devil Wears Prada one are going to make the cut.

00:41:00
Speaker 3: Josh, I mean there's let's be fair, there is a lot of competition, so that is true. We will have more film Spotting coming tomorrow. Email us if you've seen The Devil Wears Prada two, whether you agree or disagree, send those to feedback at filmspotting dot net or I understand now feedback at film spotting dot com. For film Spotting, I'm Josh.

00:41:24
Speaker 2: Larson and I'm Adam Kempinar. Thanks for listening. This conversation can serve no purpose anymore, but fine,