The Devil Wears Prada

Anne Hathaway, be mine today 🎞️🎞️🎞️ I felt like it was only right to revisit The Devil Wears Prada after just finishing the sequel. Again in the big screen I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how much they hate Andy’s friends in this movie, saying they’re the “real antagonists” of the story, and yeah… I get where they’re coming from. But honestly, I don’t think this movie really has a villain at all. Every character here is just a product of their adult life and their ambitions. Success isn’t something you stumble into overnight, it’s something people sacrifice themselves for over time. Almost every character in this movie is chasing their own version of success, it’s just that Andy’s path ends up being far more demanding and destructive than most so of course those around her are going to have a hard time accepting that. This movie also focuses way more on fashion than the sequel does, which honestly surprised me because I remembered this movie completely differently. My original watch years ago was definitely surface level. Watching it again now, I realize fashion isn’t really the point at all, it’s just the lens the movie uses to talk about power, identity, and control. My favorite scene in the entire movie is probably Miranda’s cerulean blue monologue. That scene perfectly sums up one of the movie’s biggest ideas, that even the most “mundane” parts of your life are still shaped by systems and people above you. The line: “you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room…” honestly feels directed straight at the audience. To me, it’s basically saying that no matter how different or independent you think you are, most of the choices you make have already been influenced by larger systems around you. Even rebellion and individuality can become curated products. And for the most part, that’s what this movie is really about, modern work culture and the insane level of sacrifice tied to success. Another line that really stood out to me was: “Let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke. That means it’s time for a promotion.” It sounds dramatic at first, but honestly… is it really? The amount of pressure modern work culture puts on people is genuinely insane. You can even look at places like Japan, where thousands of people every year end up taking their own lives due to work related pressure, harassment, and burnout. That’s what makes this movie so interesting to revisit now. It came out in 2006 and already felt like a warning about where workplace culture was heading, and if anything, things have only gotten worse since then. Final takeaway I liked this a lot more than I expected to. To me, this is genuinely one of the defining movies of the 21st century. It works both as entertainment and as a warning, and sometimes it becomes so entertaining that you almost forget how serious some of its themes really are. Some scenes here are genuinely perfect, and the dialogue is honestly some of my favorite ever. Favorite lines “The person whose calls you take, that's the relationship you're in.” “Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us.” “you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you, by the people in this room.” 10/10 that’s it