Speaker 1: We're Time of Lorenzo and this is the Pop Style
Speaker 1: Opinion Fest Tble Kittens, Welcome back to another edition of
Speaker 1: the Pso. I am the Tea and your Tela, Tom Fitzgerald,
Speaker 1: and I'm here with the Low and your Tela, Lorenso,
Speaker 1: my cousin, I love the husband day, how are you
Speaker 1: love the husband?
Speaker 2: I'm wonderful, fantastic.
Speaker 1: We are doing this a little late because and that
Speaker 1: was on purpose, because we wanted to wait until we
Speaker 1: could see a preview of the Devil Wears product too,
Speaker 1: so we could do a whole fashion themed podcast. But
Speaker 1: that means we're actually dropping two podcasts today on Friday,
Speaker 1: because later today we're also doing The Bitter Kitten Movie Club,
Speaker 1: which will be focused on Zola. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: try and keep these conversations a little the feeling a
Speaker 1: little different because Zola, the bittercit and Movie Club, I
Speaker 1: mean that's more of a just a loose conversation about
Speaker 1: a bunch of different things. But with the Devilwares brought
Speaker 1: it too. For this podcast, I wanted to try and
Speaker 1: do more of a strict more of a straight up review,
Speaker 1: So we're going to review it. We're going to not
Speaker 1: spoil it until like the last ten minutes of this podcast.
Speaker 1: Pardon me, still getting over that cold. But before we
Speaker 1: do that, we're going to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the Metcala this year. We talk about the Metcala every year.
Speaker 1: We are sort of the go to guys when people
Speaker 1: want quotes and stuff about the Metcala, And this year
Speaker 1: I thought we would unpack a little bit of the
Speaker 1: politics of the situation, because you cannot talk about anything
Speaker 1: anymore or without politics entering the equation. So let's start
Speaker 1: off with this, Lorenzo, why don't you use your fashion
Speaker 1: expertise and just give us an overview of the Metcala
Speaker 1: and what it is and what it's about.
Speaker 2: So the Metcala is a gala event that when and
Speaker 2: a wind Tour decided to put together h to raise
Speaker 2: money for the Costume.
Speaker 1: Institute of the Metropop Museum.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Park, so she he needed money and she she
Speaker 2: was trying to come up with ideas to help them.
Speaker 2: So she decided, why don't I, you know, put together
Speaker 2: this gala with celebrities and fashion and all that, because
Speaker 2: people are always interested in that no prey money to come.
Speaker 2: And that happened.
Speaker 1: I think that. I'm not sure she originated the Metcala.
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I think I don't think she originated Torue.
Speaker 2: She took it over because again, they needed money, uh,
Speaker 2: and they needed like celebrities, they need people that we
Speaker 2: you know, worship.
Speaker 1: And she is one of the chairs of the Costume
Speaker 1: Institute at the metropolit Museum of Art. And the reason
Speaker 1: I'm laying this groundwork is, you know, most people just
Speaker 1: don't have an understanding of what the met Gala is,
Speaker 1: and they think it's just this parade of insanely wealthy
Speaker 1: people wearing insanely expensive outfits, and all of that is
Speaker 1: largely true, but it's not simply ostentation for ostentation's sake.
Speaker 1: It is a fundraiser for an actual art museum, and
Speaker 1: because of the nature of that museum, because the Costume
Speaker 1: Institute deals with fashion, Yeah, it's a fashion oriented event.
Speaker 1: And over the years it has become more and more
Speaker 1: of a high fashion sort of parade. I mean, back
Speaker 1: in the seventies, before I think and A. Winter was
Speaker 1: in charge, it was just your average New York City museum. God.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's still a lot of rich people attended
Speaker 2: the event. That we don't even know who they are,
Speaker 2: and they right, it's not all celebrity now, it's not.
Speaker 2: I mean, we focus on the celebrities, but you know,
Speaker 2: there's a ton of people, rich New Yorkers who pay
Speaker 2: good money to attend the gala because it's something they
Speaker 2: do and they wear their culture and everything, and we
Speaker 2: never hear from them. We don't know anything about them.
Speaker 2: But they do pay good money to attend the event.
Speaker 2: And so do the fashioned houses too.
Speaker 1: If you want to explain that they buy table.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because people think, oh, you know, all these anybody,
Speaker 2: all these people come for free, but not not really.
Speaker 2: I mean the houses pay a lot of money for
Speaker 2: a table, and what they do is that they sort
Speaker 2: of suggest who they.
Speaker 1: Want to say, like hundreds of thousands of dollars for
Speaker 1: a table.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what they do is they suggest in terms
Speaker 2: of celebrities who they want at their table, and they
Speaker 2: they sort of have a discussion with that with Vogue
Speaker 2: and a win tour, and she kind of approves or
Speaker 2: not who should be attended. Event I have to say
Speaker 2: she has become more and more flexible about that because
Speaker 2: now we have the Kim Kardashians, you know, attending event
Speaker 2: and at one point, I mean, you wouldn't even think
Speaker 2: of someone like Kim Kardashi and a teddy. But anyway,
Speaker 2: now they're regulars. So but she sort of like suggests
Speaker 2: people to the to the designers anyway. So that's why
Speaker 2: you have tables, and that's why you have a bunch
Speaker 2: of people wearing the same designer as a group because
Speaker 2: they got invited by the fashion house and they go,
Speaker 2: of course, because they're promoting and he's usually people promote
Speaker 2: you know, hot people like you know, very you know
Speaker 2: hot and Trandy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, designers are not going to pick just anybody.
Speaker 1: They're going to want people that are going to you know,
Speaker 1: sell their brand. And that is the other thing is that,
Speaker 1: you know, most of the celebrities are there upon an
Speaker 1: invite by a specific designer or design house, and then
Speaker 1: they are wearing stuff from that design house.
Speaker 2: They have to wear a designer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a common misunderstanding is like, well, why didn't
Speaker 1: they wear this or why didn't they wear that? They're
Speaker 1: only there on an invite from a designer and they
Speaker 1: have to they pretty much have to wear well, let
Speaker 1: me just they're not handed clothing to wear I mean,
Speaker 1: they collaborate with the designer, but they are at the
Speaker 1: mercy of that. They can't be invited by you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know Chanel and decide to show up in
Speaker 1: Mark Jacobs. That's not how it works.
Speaker 2: I'm sure Conna story is going to be there, where
Speaker 2: is Saint Laurent. And so that's that's how it works.
Speaker 2: They get to pick what they wore. Oh of course,
Speaker 2: you know, with the help of their silas. That still works.
Speaker 2: But they have to wear the designer. And you know,
Speaker 2: I mean if Chanelle told me you have to wear Chanel,
Speaker 2: or you know, Tom Brown said you have to wear
Speaker 2: Trump Brow, of course I wear.
Speaker 1: But nobody's showing up in something they didn't want to wear,
Speaker 1: something that they were forced in to wear.
Speaker 2: That's true. And sometimes it's stuff from the latest collection
Speaker 2: or sometimes most of the time it's custom design.
Speaker 1: So it's almost always custom. I mean, no one's going
Speaker 1: to walk in wearing something they just just walked a runway.
Speaker 1: They're going to walk in wearing something outrageous that was
Speaker 1: made just for them. And in the in the years
Speaker 1: that we have been covering and I think we've been
Speaker 1: covering the Mecalla about fifteen years now, the idea of
Speaker 1: looks going viral has permeated the whole thing. It's about
Speaker 1: showing up and becoming the viral look at the night.
Speaker 1: So in some respects, and I think probably Anna Winter
Speaker 1: doesn't love this, but you know, she's got to do
Speaker 1: what she's got to do to raise their money. In
Speaker 1: some respects, it has become an anti fashion event, you know,
Speaker 1: inadvertently becoming an anti fashion because it's not about fashion,
Speaker 1: and it's not about self expression. It's just about you know, spectacle,
Speaker 1: you know, and these people are showing up in things
Speaker 1: that are just more akin to a costume design, like
Speaker 1: something that you would wear on stage to perform a
Speaker 1: pop song, than it is an actual piece of fashion.
Speaker 2: I mean these are very expensive costume costumes, very expensive
Speaker 2: garments and everything, jewelry. I mean, everybody gets involved and
Speaker 2: spend a lot of money. And then people always talk
Speaker 2: about the theme. I mean, ei they're going to be
Speaker 2: wearing the theme or theme inspired. You don't have given
Speaker 2: up on this one, but they don't. And the thing
Speaker 2: is that it's not a dress code. The theme is
Speaker 2: for it's actually for the exhibit.
Speaker 1: I just explained that, yeah, it's the press will constantly
Speaker 1: refer to the Mecala's dress code, and that's wrong. The
Speaker 1: dress code of the Metcala is formal. That's it. That
Speaker 1: is the dress code. It is not a costume party
Speaker 1: where you all have to show up according to some
Speaker 1: sort of theme. Generally though, that is how it has
Speaker 1: evolved over the years. It's technically you don't like when
Speaker 1: someone shows up in a in a nice dress, people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, she didn't you know, get the memo whatever, No,
Speaker 1: she opted to just dress nicely. Right, You don't have
Speaker 1: to dress according to the theme, and a winter herself
Speaker 1: almost never does she something right. The theme this year
Speaker 1: is Fashion is Art, and that is based on as
Speaker 1: it is every year. The theme every year of the
Speaker 1: Mecala is based on whatever exhibit is currently running in
Speaker 1: the Metcala, and the current exhibit is costume Art. So
Speaker 1: I think this theme is one of the broadest ones
Speaker 1: they've ever done. Like, fashion is Art, Okay, well you're
Speaker 1: going to show I guarantee someone's going to show up
Speaker 1: like wearing some painting or something like that, or or
Speaker 1: a gilt frame or some goofy s thing like that.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, I think and I think
Speaker 1: this might have been Anna's ploy here, is that she
Speaker 1: deliberately made it so broad in the in the hopes
Speaker 1: that people would show up in fabulous looks, not in
Speaker 1: these like clown car looks.
Speaker 2: I have to say the exhibit itself, it's is always fantastic.
Speaker 2: We've been to a couple and it's really interesting. If
Speaker 2: you're in New York and you want to see the
Speaker 2: actual exhibit, it it's worth a visit because it's beautiful
Speaker 2: gowns or beautiful garments that you know, that they pick
Speaker 2: for the exhibit. They tell, you know, they tell the
Speaker 2: whole story about the theme and everything. So it is
Speaker 2: interesting and I and it, like we said, it, you know,
Speaker 2: raised a lot of money and it's an event that
Speaker 2: everyone talks about the next day. And celebrities love it.
Speaker 2: Of course because they get all the attention. They're not
Speaker 2: going to follow the theme and they don't have to
Speaker 2: because you know, I've already said that celebrity in general,
Speaker 2: they want to look hot and sexy. Yeah, that's the
Speaker 2: bottom line here. They want to look young and hot
Speaker 2: and sexy. So so if the theme doesn't, you know,
Speaker 2: help them with that, help them with that. They're not
Speaker 2: going to do it. They're not going to do it.
Speaker 2: They're gonna wear their shear, you know, embellished, you know things.
Speaker 1: I think generally the fashion at the metcala is more
Speaker 1: out is the most outrageous red carpet in America. Right
Speaker 1: on the calendar every year it out does you know,
Speaker 1: the the Oscars and various other galas and stuff. One
Speaker 1: of the things I wanted to just briefly touch on.
Speaker 1: We went to the Whitney Gala in two thousand and nine, remember,
Speaker 1: and I just want to offer that as an example
Speaker 1: of what is a quote unquote normal, not over the
Speaker 1: top sort of benefit for a museum. I think the
Speaker 1: Whitney Gala still happens. I think they still have it
Speaker 1: every year. We were This is so weird. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about this last night. Very early in our careers
Speaker 1: because blogging was like exciting and the fashion world was
Speaker 1: embracing it. And I mean part of that was had
Speaker 1: to do with our early success. But do you remember
Speaker 1: like Versus literally Versace and Dulce and Gabana were like
Speaker 1: pursuing us for things. Remember they said, Dulce Cabana sent
Speaker 1: us wallets and everything, and it was the Versace people.
Speaker 1: Versace Dona Talla Versace was hosting the Whitney Gala that
Speaker 1: year and their people asked us to come and cover
Speaker 1: it for them, which we did. It's it's a very
Speaker 1: old post on our site.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but a lot of famous people were there.
Speaker 1: But it was so low key. Yeah, it was not
Speaker 1: the gala. They were all sitting around on couches. Everyone
Speaker 1: was wearing nice, mostly nice clothes, but it wasn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't what this what the And I'm only offering this
Speaker 1: up as as a point that museum galas are very
Speaker 1: normal in New York. They generally do get some celebrities.
Speaker 1: Even if it's not movie stars, they're going to wind
Speaker 1: up getting Broadway stars and television stars. But they they're
Speaker 1: not always right. The mechala is on a completely different level,
Speaker 1: and it's sort of why the mecala always gets so
Speaker 1: much I don't know, blowback, and that's one of the
Speaker 1: things I do want to talk about. But before we
Speaker 1: go to the break, I did want to note, because
Speaker 1: we didn't bring this up, the coach chairs this year
Speaker 1: are Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams, so it should
Speaker 1: be a very stylish.
Speaker 2: They're going to be wearing something interesting, gorgeous.
Speaker 1: I don't think Beyonce might be wearing something a little
Speaker 1: over the top, but I think most of the all
Speaker 1: three of them are going to wind up wearing very,
Speaker 1: very chic looks. I actually can't wait to see what
Speaker 1: Nicole Kimman's gonna work.
Speaker 2: That's a little bit back to the Whitney Galla you mentioned.
Speaker 2: I remember Jennifer Hudson. She was there, yes, and she
Speaker 2: was wearing Versachi Couture, Tellia Versaci and I remember looking
Speaker 2: at her gown and just being stunned by it because
Speaker 2: it was so gorgeous. My point is that these things
Speaker 2: in person look so so different, much better, and I
Speaker 2: you know, what you see in a picture is just
Speaker 2: half of the beauty of it. And I think that's
Speaker 2: the stylist job, to make sure that you know, when
Speaker 2: you see that stuff in a picture, it should sort
Speaker 2: of That's how they should pick the garments. That's my point.
Speaker 2: I think they should take photographs into consideration when they
Speaker 2: picked those things.
Speaker 1: Because when we went I'm sorry, guh, go ahead, when
Speaker 1: we went to the Whitney Galla that was two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, I believe, and I remember that sort of
Speaker 1: informed all of our red carporate coverage since then, because
Speaker 1: we try to talk about how it looks pictures, because
Speaker 1: that is the point of a red cart But maybe
Speaker 1: it looked stunning in person, but the point is a
Speaker 1: million people are going to see the pictures and only
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty so in person. So and we
Speaker 1: try and rate what we're looking at from that perspective,
Speaker 1: with the knowledge that a lot of this stuff probably
Speaker 1: looks stunning and most high fashion stage does they do.
Speaker 1: But if it doesn't photograph, well it has failed. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let's take a short break.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Also, Zoe Kravitz is the host committee head, although I
Speaker 1: don't know what that means different from the co chairs.
Speaker 1: I think there's just like levels to it. And then
Speaker 1: the honorary chairs are Jeff and Lauren Bezos and that
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about when we get back. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back.
Speaker 2: We're back.
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: the mcalla aside in the fact that we generally do
Speaker 1: aways talk about it. Yeah, I think we do a
Speaker 1: little short podcast on it every year, is we started
Speaker 1: getting emails about I hope you guys aren't covering it
Speaker 1: this year because of Jeff and Lauren Bezos.
Speaker 2: Oh honey, I have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to unpack a lot of this. Here's
Speaker 1: the thing. And this does get to a question that
Speaker 1: has plagued us since the beginning of our blogging careers,
Speaker 1: which is it's not a question, it's an issue. Readers
Speaker 1: often mistake their choices for our choices, and instead of
Speaker 1: a reader saying I am not going to read anything
Speaker 1: about the Bezos Metcala, they instead reach out to writers
Speaker 1: and say you should not be writing about this, And
Speaker 1: that's actually a total reversal of it. You are the
Speaker 1: one that should make a choice as to whether or
Speaker 1: not you're going to read certain things or support certain things.
Speaker 1: Reaching out to writers who cover those things and telling
Speaker 1: them not to cover them is pointless.
Speaker 2: I also want to emphasize that we have our limits.
Speaker 2: It's not like we cover everything anything. I mean, we
Speaker 2: don't cover those people anymore, you know, like Millennia and
Speaker 2: all these people. So my point is that we have
Speaker 2: some principal fear. It's just that when it comes to
Speaker 2: the metal, I mean, come on, well.
Speaker 1: Here's my Yeah, there are certain dates on the calendar,
Speaker 1: certain months of the year that if you're in our
Speaker 1: line of work, they are essential to our line of work.
Speaker 1: Like we have to cover award season, we have to
Speaker 1: cover the Oscars, we have to cover the Metcala, we
Speaker 1: have to cover the can Film Festival, we have to
Speaker 1: cover the Venice Film Festival. If we don't cover these things,
Speaker 1: we are in effect saying we're not the person who
Speaker 1: covers this, like we're just not and that you know,
Speaker 1: we've set ourselves up. It's been twenty years of work,
Speaker 1: but we have set ourselves up as two of the
Speaker 1: leading voices in red carpet commentary in the world. LeMond
Speaker 1: just did an interview with us and actually said that
Speaker 1: that we were like leading voices in the and you know,
Speaker 1: I do say that. I'm like, I do say that
Speaker 1: to brag. I'm not even going to up front like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that to brag, but it's also the truth,
Speaker 1: Like we worked very hard to establish ourselves. And the
Speaker 1: thing is, it's one thing. If you want to contact
Speaker 1: I don't know, Vogue or Cosmo and tell them that
Speaker 1: they shouldn't cover it, that's a mainstream media piece and
Speaker 1: maybe you can, yeah, maybe you can work something. But
Speaker 1: I get offended when people go after the smallest possible
Speaker 1: publishers and tell them you better not do this or
Speaker 1: I'm going to stop reading you and hands in the
Speaker 1: air like okay, I guess you're going to stop reading me.
Speaker 1: But this is my job and the other I mean
Speaker 1: just removing all of that from it, do you. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jeff and Laaren Bezos are two of the biggest names
Speaker 1: in the oligarchy sphere, but every single year at the
Speaker 1: met gala, there are billionaires there every single year. Like
Speaker 1: that's it's rich people. It's a gala for rich people.
Speaker 2: Right. The beauty of having a site like ours is
Speaker 2: that we are the owners and we make our decisions.
Speaker 2: Uh uh, you know, based on what how we feel comfortable,
Speaker 2: you know, with anything, so like for I'll give you
Speaker 2: an exhip, but don't Checkabana. I mean, they were horrible
Speaker 2: people for a long time. There still are, but people
Speaker 2: are wearing them and we have to report on that,
Speaker 2: and we have to report on them. I mean, like
Speaker 2: just because you know, I don't know recently and it
Speaker 2: was that and had the way where she yeah she
Speaker 2: wore uh do chagabuna. I believe anywhere everyone is wearing them.
Speaker 2: So we have to say this is by dot Chickabana.
Speaker 2: We still I mean I avoid putting as you have noticed,
Speaker 2: you guys have noticed, I don't put it like ed
Speaker 2: campaigns or anything like that. I avoid as much as
Speaker 2: I can as we can. But sometimes if if a
Speaker 2: major celebrity is wearing do Chakobana or any other brand
Speaker 2: that you guys you know, don't don't agree with, I
Speaker 2: mean we still have to say we can't. We still
Speaker 2: have to cover.
Speaker 1: There was a long time where people are like, why
Speaker 1: are you still covering them? I mean there was uh,
Speaker 1: someone had to melt down in our comment section last
Speaker 1: year because we were covering the opening of that film
Speaker 1: with oh god, what's his name? Brad Pitt and Brad
Speaker 1: Pitt and why are you covering Brad Pitt? Because he's
Speaker 1: problematic and he abused his children. And I'm like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I get that, but my job is to cover film
Speaker 1: premiers like this is a major film premiere. Blame it
Speaker 1: on Hollywood that he still has a career, But don't
Speaker 1: ask me not to cover a major premiere because you
Speaker 1: don't like or because the per and listen, I've made
Speaker 1: these choices. We both have there, we have severely cut
Speaker 1: back on covering someone like Johnny Depp. I mean, oh,
Speaker 1: granted he's not doing much with his life right now,
Speaker 1: but we have covered him. We've covered Kanye, but because
Speaker 1: these are very problematic people. But again, I didn't elevate
Speaker 1: these people. And sometimes you get that, you get why
Speaker 1: are you giving this person a platform? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: do you really think my little blog is giving Kanye
Speaker 1: a bigger platform? Like I'm not at it to this
Speaker 1: at all, right.
Speaker 2: And just to finish so that we don't spend too
Speaker 2: much time talking about this, I don't want you to
Speaker 2: feel sorry for us, but revenue in general for a
Speaker 2: website plummeting are just getting smaller by the minute. So
Speaker 2: we have to cover the stuff that we think will
Speaker 2: attract a lot of attention. So yeah, that's that's, that's
Speaker 2: how it is.
Speaker 1: I'm not even morally compromised or ethically compromised by this.
Speaker 1: I do not support anything about Jeff and Lauren Bezos.
Speaker 1: I think they're horrible people. I think they've done horrible
Speaker 1: things to this country. But I'm not going to not
Speaker 1: cover my the things that I'm probably not covering them. No,
Speaker 1: we're not going to have much they're going to show
Speaker 1: up on our site. But I'm not boycotting the Megala.
Speaker 1: That's not something I'm going I mean, it would have
Speaker 1: to be something far more controversial than an olive arch
Speaker 1: showing up to get me to just completely.
Speaker 2: I'm sure she'll be wearing something insanely outraged, but we're
Speaker 2: not covering I mean, they attended to Vinity fear of
Speaker 2: and we didn't cover it. Yeah anyway, now, but that's.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is that this is our job. This
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest events that we cover every year.
Speaker 1: Like literally people come just to see what Tom and
Speaker 1: Lorenzo have said about the Metcala looks. So it was
Speaker 1: never a question that we were not going to cover this.
Speaker 1: It just never was. Like I said, every reader should
Speaker 1: make that choice. If you feel like you cannot support this,
Speaker 1: then don't click on anything, and maybe we and other
Speaker 1: publishers will learn some sort of lesson about what we
Speaker 1: should and shouldn't cover. But that's all I wanted to
Speaker 1: get into today, which is that if you don't want
Speaker 1: to read something as a reader, that's on you. It's
Speaker 1: not on you to contact the writer and say stop
Speaker 1: writing about this.
Speaker 2: That's all.
Speaker 1: That's my little small independent publisher rant of the day.
Speaker 1: But I'm looking forward to the Metcala. I look forward
Speaker 1: to it every single year. It's going to be fun.
Speaker 1: Everyone's going to look insane, right, and yeah, I have
Speaker 1: no problem with covering it, even with horrible oligarchs there.
Speaker 1: And like I said, they are not the first and
Speaker 1: they won't be the last oligarchs. I mean the Trumps.
Speaker 1: You went to more than one met Kala over the years.
Speaker 1: All right, So done, Yeah, done with that. All right,
Speaker 1: So we're going to move on to the fictional Anna
Speaker 1: Winter and tell you everything we thought of the Devil
Speaker 1: wors Prota two when we come back. We're back, and
Speaker 1: now we're going to talk about the Devil wors Prota
Speaker 1: two because earlier this week I came into Lorenzo's office
Speaker 1: and I said, and this was when I had the
Speaker 1: idea to push the podcast back. I was like, we
Speaker 1: can't let this movie go by.
Speaker 2: We have to like, this is God, that's my life,
Speaker 2: this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just it's our world is fashioned And honestly,
Speaker 1: that the original Devilwaar's product, which came out the year
Speaker 1: we launched our blog two thousand and six.
Speaker 2: Yeow wow.
Speaker 1: It actually informed a lot of our early coverage, our
Speaker 1: early ideas about it, and so there was no question
Speaker 1: that we were going to do some sort of review.
Speaker 1: And I let me just I didn't want to write
Speaker 1: a review. I wanted the two of us to bat
Speaker 1: it around and have you involved in it.
Speaker 2: Listen, I've watched the first movie like a hundred times.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, so it's an iconic piece of everything anything
Speaker 2: fashion movie. It's just it's.
Speaker 1: It's also a snapshot of the aughts, you know, two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, and it was part of a cycle
Speaker 1: of like high fashion fashionista films, like you know, Confessions
Speaker 1: of a what was it, Confessions of a Fashionistah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a bunch of those, and of course the
Speaker 1: Sex and the City movies. It was like this whole
Speaker 1: thing that was happening in the late Bush era, where
Speaker 1: the Obama era of like frivolous sort of high fashion movies.
Speaker 1: And that was the That was the atmosphere in which
Speaker 1: we launched Oar Blog. That was the atmosphere in which
Speaker 1: Project Runway became a major hit at the time. So
Speaker 1: all of this was in the mix of the aughts
Speaker 1: of the two thousand and six.
Speaker 2: And the fashion of this industry until then was this
Speaker 2: secret thing that nobody talked about, nobody wanted to talk about. It's,
Speaker 2: you know, like the industry, I mean the inside of it,
Speaker 2: of course, not fashion in general, but in terms of
Speaker 2: like how the work was, how magazines work, and that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. We didn't know. We didn't have a
Speaker 2: lot of information until we got the book first. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: So the devil Wares prought a book written by Lauren
Speaker 2: H what is it Wisberger anyway, So she wrote the book,
Speaker 2: and you know, obviously they bought the book rights and
Speaker 2: had the movie. I read the book. I absolutely loved
Speaker 2: the book. I read the book like three times. It's
Speaker 2: a great book because I like fashion. I mean, if
Speaker 2: you like fashion, then you're interested in that kind of thing,
Speaker 2: and I think the movie gave a very interesting view
Speaker 2: and perception of fashion in general.
Speaker 1: I didn't love the book. I did read the book.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was juicy and it was fun and everything,
Speaker 1: but I think Lauren Weisberger is not a fashion girly,
Speaker 1: and so it was a look at the fashion industry
Speaker 1: from someone who really doesn't appreciate it or really understand it.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. As she has said in interviews, the
Speaker 1: whole point of the book was to be an outsider.
Speaker 1: It was the perspective of being an outsider in that world.
Speaker 2: It was a very cynical way of looking it was
Speaker 2: at the industry well how she wrote the book.
Speaker 1: And I also thought that the first film on One
Speaker 1: of the issues of the first film is that there
Speaker 1: was this tension and the film didn't seem quite aware
Speaker 1: of it. That Andy Sachs Anne Hathaway's character seemed kind
Speaker 1: of ungrateful, like literally ungrateful for what was Like she
Speaker 1: kind of rolled her eyes when everyone said there were
Speaker 1: million girls that would kill for the job, But there
Speaker 1: were a million girls that would kill for that job.
Speaker 1: And if you're not feeling it, then maybe you should
Speaker 1: get the hell out of it. It is it despite everything.
Speaker 1: It is a career starter to be someone like Anna
Speaker 1: Wintor's first or second assistant. That that opens doors for people.
Speaker 2: But my re understanding is that she never felt that
Speaker 2: that was for her. That she was there just, you know,
Speaker 2: so she could get some experience and move on to
Speaker 2: something else. It's true to the movie. The real story
Speaker 2: the movie that she didn't care much about it. She
Speaker 2: just was there because she knew that would look good
Speaker 2: in her resume. So that is true. And you know,
Speaker 2: I think that's why the book is so cynical and
Speaker 2: so like criticizing everything pretty much, which you know, I
Speaker 2: have to say, Uh, you know, I know the fashion
Speaker 2: indust really well. We both know, and yeah, there's a
Speaker 2: lot to criticize.
Speaker 1: The bad there is there is. I just don't think
Speaker 1: necessarily that is a position from which you can criticize much.
Speaker 1: Now let's get into this. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: Devil Worre's Prota two and we're going to compare it
Speaker 1: in some ways to the first. So if you have
Speaker 1: things you want to say about the first film, we
Speaker 1: can work them in. Like I said, we'll wait, we'll
Speaker 1: take a break and then have like a spoiler section
Speaker 1: at the end of this. But right now we're not
Speaker 1: going to get into spoilers. We're just going to talk
Speaker 1: about the setup. Right out of the gate, I'll say this,
Speaker 1: the Devil wors Product two is actually better than it
Speaker 1: has better than it had to be.
Speaker 2: Right. You said that when we walked out of the theater,
Speaker 2: and now I was like, that's a very good observation.
Speaker 2: It's really true.
Speaker 1: I I'm sorry, I'm clearing my throat a lot, but
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get over COVID and what I mean
Speaker 1: by that when I say it's better than it needed
Speaker 1: to be. Like my fear, I don't fear is kind
Speaker 1: of overstating it. My concern even that is overstating it.
Speaker 1: But I was a little worried that this film was
Speaker 1: going to just run the greatest hits and everybody was
Speaker 1: going to, you know, talk about Cyrilian and gurder Loins,
Speaker 1: and it was just going to be a bunch of
Speaker 1: people who didn't move on in twenty years. Every reference
Speaker 1: was going to be to something and they were all
Speaker 1: going to wear stupid clown clothes, and I thought they
Speaker 1: were going to do and just like that, right, what
Speaker 1: that did to Sex and the City turned all of
Speaker 1: those characters stupid And all they did was refer to
Speaker 1: stuff that happened twenty years ago while they tottered around
Speaker 1: in these ridiculous outfits. And that was my fear. I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know, this is going to be
Speaker 1: a really silly movie. To my very pleasant surprise, it's
Speaker 1: a movie about people who have lived twenty years since
Speaker 1: the last movie. Yeah, and it makes sure that you
Speaker 1: understand that, like we are not just picking up where
Speaker 1: we left off. Twenty years have gone by for all
Speaker 1: four of the main characters, and that's Stanley, Twotamily Blunt,
Speaker 1: Merril in Hathaway, and it really does an interesting job
Speaker 1: of showing where they are in the world world now,
Speaker 1: how that doesn't line up with where they were in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. At the same time, the film
Speaker 1: is rather admirably unpacking the collapse of the media and
Speaker 1: the collapse of the magazine industry and where the fashion
Speaker 1: industry is now while all of these collapses are going on.
Speaker 2: I think the beauty of it is that it wouldn't
Speaker 2: be there wouldn't be a second movie if they didn't
Speaker 2: bring all these people back. And absolutely, and I watched
Speaker 2: a ton of interviews on TikTok and they all say
Speaker 2: the same thing. They all contributed to somehow. They all said, well,
Speaker 2: we'll come back, but you know, we have to make
Speaker 2: sure that we don't fuck up with the first one.
Speaker 2: You know, it has to be a second movie that
Speaker 2: makes sense. Especially Merristreep, she was very adamant about it
Speaker 2: that you know, where's my character going to be.
Speaker 1: Is in a different place, and I was like, huh wow, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's really interesting.
Speaker 2: So they all had to agree that before they came back.
Speaker 2: And that's why, as you said, it didn't have to
Speaker 2: be this good, because people love the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they could have just done some stupid Yeah.
Speaker 2: I always compared to like Dalton Abby. It's it's that
Speaker 2: kind of fandom. You know, you love the movie, you're
Speaker 2: gonna see it anyway. Of course, there's a ton more
Speaker 2: fashion and a ton more you know things that of
Speaker 2: course had to be there for the second movie.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more fashion names, there's a lot more
Speaker 1: celebrity cameos and that. That is the kind of thing
Speaker 1: where I was afraid the whole foot, the whole movie
Speaker 1: was just gonna be silly shit like that.
Speaker 2: But it kind of made sense. Why no, it may.
Speaker 1: I mean back in the during the when they shot
Speaker 1: the first movie, they didn't have all these names lining up.
Speaker 2: Right, No, they didn't. I mean everyone talks about it,
Speaker 2: Merris Reep said. I mean she even joked, he said,
Speaker 2: we got a lot more money for the second movie
Speaker 2: because they didn't have a lot of movie. They thought
Speaker 2: it was just gonna be some silly fashion movie. They
Speaker 2: didn't want to spend a.
Speaker 1: Lot of movie and a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Money, I'm sorry, a lot of money, a lot of movie. Uh.
Speaker 2: And Patricia Field is a fantastic custom designer, but her
Speaker 2: approach is completely differ. Even if she had movie, I
Speaker 2: think her approach would have been if she had money, money,
Speaker 2: my god, what is going on with me? Uh? If
Speaker 2: she had money to spend, I think her approach would
Speaker 2: have been the same, because that's how she approached. She
Speaker 2: likes to make some match I mean, look at what
Speaker 2: she did for Sex and the City.
Speaker 1: Right, But she wasn't the costume designer on this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, and you mentioned they didn't have the designers
Speaker 2: were afraid of even touching this movie, so nobody showed up. Uh.
Speaker 2: The roally reason why we have Valentino in the first
Speaker 2: movie is because he's i mean in halfway it. You know,
Speaker 2: begged him pretty much to be in the movie.
Speaker 1: And part of everything was people, you know, designers did
Speaker 1: not want to be involved because Anna Winter what it
Speaker 1: was at the time, not speaking about this book at all.
Speaker 1: She was not referencing it. And there was a period
Speaker 1: I remember where Meryl Streep was worried like that. Anna
Speaker 1: Winter was mad at her, and later they gave her
Speaker 1: Meryl Streep to cover both.
Speaker 2: The real story is that she got a galley and
Speaker 2: she knew about the movie and I went to it.
Speaker 2: She knew about the movie and she yeah, so she
Speaker 2: was fully aware.
Speaker 1: And so designers did not want to become involved with
Speaker 1: the first movie because Anna. And honestly, I think the
Speaker 1: only reason Anna has embraced this movie, the second movie,
Speaker 1: and has embraced the sort of comparisons to Miranda Priestley
Speaker 1: is because it's good for fashion and it's good for Vogue.
Speaker 1: Let's just embrace it. And so she got all of
Speaker 1: these fashion people to get on board with the second movie,
Speaker 1: and she has been promoting it. I mean, Anna's been
Speaker 1: right there promoting this movie.
Speaker 2: They had stuff for TikTok, like where they when, where
Speaker 2: there are two of them together on the elevator and
Speaker 2: all that stuff. I mean they shot a lot of
Speaker 2: stuff because of the movie. So it's a it's a
Speaker 2: whole it's a completely different place now, yeah, where they
Speaker 2: are with the movie.
Speaker 1: Anyway back to the to the All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: about what the movie is about without and I won't
Speaker 1: give away spoilers, but this is the setup for the movie,
Speaker 1: and this is what and I want to get into
Speaker 1: what I mean by it really felt like they thought
Speaker 1: about where these characters would be after twenty years and
Speaker 1: what they would be like. So Andy sacks Heads has
Speaker 1: had a very good journalism career, and the movie opens
Speaker 1: with her winning a prestigious journalism award and then immediately
Speaker 1: getting fired because I don't know, her paper was bought
Speaker 1: out by a hedge fund or something like that, and
Speaker 1: then there's machinations and it doesn't entirely make sense until
Speaker 1: much months later in the movie as to why this happens,
Speaker 1: But somehow she gets offered a job as features editor
Speaker 1: at Runway Magazine, and the reason she got this offer
Speaker 1: is because Runway and Miranda Priestley are in a pr
Speaker 1: nightmare because I don't know, it all happened so fast
Speaker 1: the setup, the Runway endorseed some fast fashion place or
Speaker 1: something that I used sweatshop workers or something like that.
Speaker 1: It actually went by so fast. In the beginning, they
Speaker 1: just wanted to set it up and get Andy in
Speaker 1: that all. So yes, Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestley is a
Speaker 1: somewhat fallen figure. She's not as invulnerable as she once was.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I liked about that
Speaker 1: was that the offices and runway are completely They look
Speaker 1: the same, but the vibe is completely different. There is
Speaker 1: no gurdier loins, there is no throwing coats on desks.
Speaker 1: They actually make a point of saying that HR complained
Speaker 1: about that, and Miranda has to hang up her own coats.
Speaker 1: And then they show and this was something they didn't
Speaker 1: show in the first film, editorial meetings. They didn't show
Speaker 1: a lot of the business of being a fashion magazine,
Speaker 1: like what goes on day and it's not about trying
Speaker 1: on clothes and matching belts to dresses. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: meetings and it's very interesting because how do I put this?
Speaker 1: They let Miranda Priestley be a seventy five year old
Speaker 1: woman in the story, and I actually loved those scenes
Speaker 1: because that's a formerly powerful figure who has lost her
Speaker 1: power and like, so she's sitting in these meetings and
Speaker 1: people are mouthing off to her, people are rolling their
Speaker 1: eyes out of it.
Speaker 2: They don't put up with that anymore, with her attitude.
Speaker 1: Well, that's the other thing is that she tries to
Speaker 1: do these little mirandaisms, and then she's constantly being told
Speaker 1: you can't say that, you can't say that at HR
Speaker 1: talk to you about that.
Speaker 2: And I like that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that's true. I mean right, and I
Speaker 1: mean the My understanding is that Anna Winter herself has
Speaker 1: toned all of that stuff way way down, all of
Speaker 1: the imperiousness and everything, all of the major expenses and everything.
Speaker 1: So I think it's sort of reflecting that same token.
Speaker 1: Stanley Tucci is still there as Nigel, and his growth
Speaker 1: is a lot more subtle, and I can't really get
Speaker 1: into it without giving certain things away, which I won't do.
Speaker 1: But you think this guy is stuck because at the
Speaker 1: end of the last film, at the end of the
Speaker 1: first film, he got screwed over by Miranda, he thought
Speaker 1: he was getting a promotion and he wound up not
Speaker 1: And it's twenty years later and he's still in the
Speaker 1: same job pretty much, and the film doesn't. I actually
Speaker 1: really like the way they handled it because it was very,
Speaker 1: very subtle to explain how he has changed internally in
Speaker 1: the years since, how his expectations have changed, and what
Speaker 1: he still.
Speaker 2: Wants, right, and I feels more real, like you know,
Speaker 2: some people don't get a promotion.
Speaker 1: And not everybody can be a CEO, like someone has
Speaker 1: to work on you'll.
Speaker 2: Do that forever and you have to come to terms
Speaker 2: with that sometime in your life if you want to
Speaker 2: continue in that kind of situation. Right and job. So
Speaker 2: I think they do a very good job.
Speaker 1: I think they do a great job. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about a few things that hmm, didn't quite sit
Speaker 1: with me and so Andy. So they do a good
Speaker 1: job of showing that Andy is a much more mature
Speaker 1: and established person than she was the twenty year old,
Speaker 1: you know, with the person from twenty years ago, the
Speaker 1: young girl who was an assistant. She has a career,
Speaker 1: she's you know, critically acclaimed, that sort of thing, and
Speaker 1: they do mostly a good job with that. But then
Speaker 1: she gets in back in that office again, and I
Speaker 1: guess they have to do this. Suddenly she's running around
Speaker 1: worrying and she's a features editor. That's the thing. If
Speaker 1: you're a features editor at a magazine that is you
Speaker 1: are one of the highest ranking editors.
Speaker 2: And I get it.
Speaker 1: It was funny that in the beginning Miranda just keeps
Speaker 1: treating her like an assistant. But I was getting frustrated
Speaker 1: during those scenes because I'm like, all right, she's like
Speaker 1: forty three years old, well established, why is she putting.
Speaker 2: Up with this?
Speaker 1: And I really wanted and never got spoiler a scene
Speaker 1: where she just would go into I wanted her to
Speaker 1: unload on Miranda. I really did. I thought, Okay, the
Speaker 1: film is establishing that Miranda's style of Madda Zierol' style
Speaker 1: is problematic. It's established, and Andy is chore and grown
Speaker 1: up and not you know, why are we doing this
Speaker 1: thing where she's running around intimidated and worrying about and
Speaker 1: the other thing is like other people in there were
Speaker 1: treating her like shit. Assistants were treating and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, she's a features editor at essentially Vogue. Why
Speaker 1: is she putting up with any of this? Nigel was
Speaker 1: being a bitch to her in the beginning, and I
Speaker 1: get it, like these are the things you need to
Speaker 1: check off the list. Everyone needs to comment on her
Speaker 1: eating cards and her poor fashion sense or whatever. But
Speaker 1: at a certain point you're like, she's not twenty three.
Speaker 1: Why and there what I was starting to get annoyed
Speaker 1: with it. Honestly that that is probably my main and
Speaker 1: only criticism of the film, except in general sense, it's frivolous.
Speaker 1: It's not a deep story now, and he said, I.
Speaker 2: Never expected to be deep. I was like, all right,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to get a continuation I guess of
Speaker 2: the story. Yeah, it's just going to continue, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to enjoy this very much. And I did. I
Speaker 2: think they're all incredible. I think I feel bad for
Speaker 2: Simon and Ashley actually because it feels like she's like
Speaker 2: like a side thing the entire time. Yeah. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: has the four lines. I feel like they they were
Speaker 2: very strong about showcasing those four and.
Speaker 1: Which made which made sense.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I, you know, I think,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel about for Simon because she's
Speaker 2: a very good actor and and she's gorgeous. She is
Speaker 2: absolutely gorgeous, and all the customers she's wearing in the
Speaker 2: movie are incredible. I mean, she looks fantastic. So I
Speaker 2: was hoping for a little more, but I guess she's
Speaker 2: just an assistant. She's you know, I guess anyway, And
Speaker 2: and yes, you're right, but but I love the fashion stuff.
Speaker 2: I love they went to Milan. I mean that was incredible.
Speaker 1: There was some incredible scenes in Milan, just breathtaking scenes
Speaker 1: in Milan. There is I mean, it's something I am.
Speaker 1: It's everywhere, it's every about who the special all right, so.
Speaker 2: Lady, we're not give you anything A.
Speaker 1: It was a great number. It was a great I know,
Speaker 1: come on, it was a great number.
Speaker 2: I felt that was unnecessary because nobody, well they do
Speaker 2: have music, music, but I don't have a singer, a
Speaker 2: major singing.
Speaker 1: From anyway from that kind of event. No John for
Speaker 1: Couture show.
Speaker 2: Mcalladay, they hire a special singer, but not for that anyway.
Speaker 2: But Lady Gaga was there was It's a great song,
Speaker 2: and you know, it was beautiful because they showcase all
Speaker 2: these famous and iconic looks from various collections that I
Speaker 2: think that's what I saw, and it looked beautiful.
Speaker 1: I just want to say, uh, I think most of
Speaker 1: what we're going to say about Emily Blunt is going
Speaker 1: to go in the spoiler section because I don't really
Speaker 1: want to give too much away. If you care about
Speaker 1: these things, I will say she is the best part
Speaker 1: of the film. She's the funniest part of the film.
Speaker 1: I have to say. This is not a particularly laugh
Speaker 1: riot of a film. It's entertained, it's a very light,
Speaker 1: and it moves out of very breast pace. I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed myself, but I only laughed in Emily Blant scenes.
Speaker 1: Those were the only funny scenes. And she is fucking hilarious.
Speaker 1: Her line delivery.
Speaker 2: Is just f I've always said, listen, I worship, worship
Speaker 2: Maristery always my entire life. I always loved that woman.
Speaker 2: But I've always said that the devil was front. It's
Speaker 2: all about Emily Blunt. I've always said that. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: that's I think she's a movie first one and second one.
Speaker 2: She is hilarious the way as you said.
Speaker 1: She delivers her line delivery.
Speaker 2: Sorry, incredible, and it has to do with the attitude
Speaker 2: and the accident and the British you know, attitude and
Speaker 2: all that. It just works. I was reading an interview
Speaker 2: with her. First of all, she was only twenty three
Speaker 2: when she made the first movie, and she talks about that,
Speaker 2: how young and how intimidated she was by everything, by
Speaker 2: the whole thing. And she talks about how when she
Speaker 2: additioned to the part the first movie, she was very tired.
Speaker 2: She had just done another edition and she was extremely tired,
Speaker 2: and she did the second the audition for the movie,
Speaker 2: and she start speaking with a British accent and she
Speaker 2: forgot and then and then apparently that's how it well,
Speaker 2: why the character has a British accent, because they were like,
Speaker 2: oh that works, I keep it, and then that's how
Speaker 2: they kept the accent. I think she is phenomenal. I
Speaker 2: love her as an actor, and I think she she's delivers.
Speaker 2: The whole thing was you know, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: what she does or that's for later. That's for later, Okay, anyway,
Speaker 2: but I do love her and she's just funny, funny, funny, funny.
Speaker 1: One thing I want to go back to with all
Speaker 1: four of the main characters, Like I said, they really
Speaker 1: thought about where these people would be, what choices they
Speaker 1: would have made in the twenty years since the last film.
Speaker 1: And when we get to the end of the film
Speaker 1: and this is this was my pleasant surprise, I was like, huh,
Speaker 1: they really managed to do that. It felt like those
Speaker 1: four character arcs started twenty years ago and ended a fact,
Speaker 1: like they really wrapped up character arcs for those four
Speaker 1: characters that literally started twenty years prior. It felt correct,
Speaker 1: it felt well considered. I think again, we're going to
Speaker 1: save some of the We're going to save it for
Speaker 1: the spoiler section. But I do think people might have
Speaker 1: an issue with how Emily Blunt was handled, how her
Speaker 1: character was handled, and we're going to unpack that later.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's very interesting, and people were also complaining about, oh,
Speaker 2: we get to that later. I didn't want to. Thought.
Speaker 1: One of the controversies that came out before the film
Speaker 1: debuted was in a lot of Chinese viewers were upset
Speaker 1: about the the the intern, whose name is Jin Chow,
Speaker 1: played by Helen Chen. And it is not for me
Speaker 1: to tell people how they should feel about ethnic stereotypes.
Speaker 1: I did cringe at the scene that everybody saw, which
Speaker 1: is when she introduces herself in She's this very nervous, nerdy,
Speaker 1: glasses overachieving four point zero GPA Asian girl, and it
Speaker 1: does check off a bunch of stereotypes. I will say
Speaker 1: that the rest of the time she's in the film,
Speaker 1: she's not like that at all. I mean, she's an assistant,
Speaker 1: but I don't feel like they were indulging in these
Speaker 1: Asian stereotypes anymore. She was just a high functioning assistant.
Speaker 2: I think they used it for like a one funny
Speaker 2: joke and then they kind of drop was poorly considered.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, And my understanding is that Chinese viewers
Speaker 1: thought the name jin Chow was like a ching chong
Speaker 1: kind of joke.
Speaker 2: Everything was a joke.
Speaker 1: It was all a little It felt a little two
Speaker 1: thousand and six to be. It was like, suddenly, it's
Speaker 1: two thousand and six and you're making an ethnic joke
Speaker 1: that you probably shouldn't be making. The other thing I
Speaker 1: want to say is that Tracy Toms comes back from
Speaker 1: the first film as her friend, really loved loved their
Speaker 1: scenes together because it was nice that none of it
Speaker 1: was nice that none of her other friends, because they
Speaker 1: were all assholes in the first film Boyfriend. But there
Speaker 1: was a certain sense of continuity, like, yeah, okay, you
Speaker 1: probably would have stayed friends with her for twenty years
Speaker 1: and her life turned out great. She's got a great apartment,
Speaker 1: she's got a kid, she's got, you know, a great career,
Speaker 1: and she's only in it briefly. But it was a
Speaker 1: nice tie to the first film.
Speaker 2: I agree. I agree.
Speaker 1: Let's see one more thing I do have to give Meryl.
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems silly to give Meryl credit. But
Speaker 1: there are certain scenes in the movie, the scene in
Speaker 1: the limo at the end, obviously I'm not gonna talk
Speaker 1: about it, but where it's like, oh, they're just letting
Speaker 1: Meryl do it. They're just keeping a camera on Meryl
Speaker 1: and just letting her run through every Meryl trick she has,
Speaker 1: and that's when she's at her best, Like, just let
Speaker 1: Meryl be Meryl.
Speaker 2: I think they paid homage to the first movie with
Speaker 2: that scene, and they did because in the first movie
Speaker 2: she says, you know, she's in a car. She said
Speaker 2: to everyone wants to be he wants to be and
Speaker 2: then she says go And apparently Marylsup wasn't happy with
Speaker 2: the scene first movie, and then she said, can we
Speaker 2: shoot this again? And then she added the go word,
Speaker 2: and then they all loved it and they kept the
Speaker 2: whole thing. So I think this there was a lot
Speaker 2: of that. Like the soundtrack. They brought a lot of
Speaker 2: the music back, which I loved because again, I'm a
Speaker 2: huge fan of the first movie, so I loved one.
Speaker 2: Every now and then you hear the music, you know, like.
Speaker 1: But I don't think it was heavy hand, no, no, not.
Speaker 1: I I don't feel like they were cycling through the hits.
Speaker 1: I felt like they were moving all of these characters.
Speaker 2: I really well. I actually joked with the street vandor
Speaker 2: selling the belts, and and then.
Speaker 1: I thought it was belts.
Speaker 2: I thought it was cute, like he's showing two belts
Speaker 2: and she can't decide which one she wants to buy.
Speaker 1: That was a split second, and that.
Speaker 2: It was just the beginning, very very quick. The fashion
Speaker 2: again with over the top, of course, but you know,
Speaker 2: the costume designer, what's her name, Molly Rogers, said that,
Speaker 2: you know, with the first.
Speaker 1: Movie, she was a costume designer, and just like that.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, oh, oh wow, I think she was.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure she was.
Speaker 2: She said that in the first you know, for the
Speaker 2: first movie, nobody wanted to contribute in anything. But she
Speaker 2: said for this one, she said, it was like a
Speaker 2: line of people bagging to be in the movie. And
Speaker 2: that's why you see all these major you know houses.
Speaker 1: Of course, but I'll give her credit because I, like
Speaker 1: I said, there's one or two outfits that I thought
Speaker 1: were like, that's a little over the top. But and
Speaker 1: of course nobody, I mean passion editors do not show
Speaker 1: up for work in kutoure.
Speaker 2: They just don't.
Speaker 1: And there was a scene at the end where Andy
Speaker 1: was in a civilian sweater and a pair of jeans,
Speaker 1: and I was like, actually, that looks.
Speaker 2: Like a fashion editor. I think this needs to be explained,
Speaker 2: because the thing is that I actually read an interview
Speaker 2: with somebody who worked for one of the in Me
Speaker 2: Big magazine, and she talked about that, like she said,
Speaker 2: we live in we're working with this in this industry
Speaker 2: where we see all these very very expensive things, beautiful things,
Speaker 2: but we can't afford any of that, and we still
Speaker 2: have to work, We still have to go to the office.
Speaker 2: And they kind of like create a sort of like
Speaker 2: a uniform, you know.
Speaker 1: Like white Oxford.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they can't afford those brids most of their
Speaker 2: And and also about the closet, you know, that's all fantasy,
Speaker 2: the whole thing about you know, they just go in
Speaker 2: and and wear everything in the closet. That's just just
Speaker 2: for the movie.
Speaker 1: That's just a fantasy.
Speaker 2: That doesn't work, that doesn't work in real life. One
Speaker 2: interesting thing I want to mention is talking about a
Speaker 2: movie Blunt And and the character Emily, is that finally
Speaker 2: the real Emily came out and now she's giving all
Speaker 2: these interviews. The real Emily is Leslie Freemar. She's now
Speaker 2: a stylist. Her major client is Charlie Theron, and she
Speaker 2: finally decided to come out and tell her story. And
Speaker 2: so she gave an interview. She was interviewed by Vogue
Speaker 2: the podcast. I forget what what the podcast that's called.
Speaker 2: I'll remember in a second. Oh, it's it's the run
Speaker 2: Through with Vogue. So she was interviewed. She gave her
Speaker 2: whole story and and she you know that that's true,
Speaker 2: that's you know, that's her. And and she you know,
Speaker 2: interviewed Andy Sachs, you know, the Leslie Lauren. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: So the whole thing, it's true. She said, the movie
Speaker 2: created this whole fantasy about the industry, and apparently the
Speaker 2: galley for the movie. When she wrote the first Gally
Speaker 2: h apparently it was even darker. Uh. But when they
Speaker 2: decided to make the publish the book, the publishers decided that,
Speaker 2: you know, let's give it a little more fantasy and
Speaker 2: tone it down here and there. And they did the
Speaker 2: same for the movie anyway, So that's why I think
Speaker 2: that's why it worked. I think if it was very
Speaker 2: dark the first of the second movie. People wouldn't want
Speaker 2: to people would be put off by it.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, all right, why don't we go for
Speaker 1: a break and then we'll come back and do a
Speaker 1: little bit of spoiler talk about some of the stuff
Speaker 1: we didn't want to, you know, reveal in this part.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back back and now we're going to
Speaker 1: get into some of the spoiler stuff about the Devil
Speaker 1: War's product too. The big thing and it really surprised
Speaker 1: me that they did this, was that Miranda Priestley is
Speaker 1: not the villain of this story. She's actually Andy's co conspirator,
Speaker 1: because the villain of the story is Emily Blunt.
Speaker 2: Surprised by this.
Speaker 1: I did not expect that to happen, and I thought
Speaker 1: it was a little bold of them to take that move.
Speaker 1: And I thought it I ain't I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was like, would Emily, the Emily of two thousand and
Speaker 1: six that she portrayed, is this where she would have
Speaker 1: wound up? But the I thought the script did some
Speaker 1: interesting things to give you a hint of where her
Speaker 1: life was, why her life was the way it was,
Speaker 1: and ultimately she is the girlfriend of a billionaire played
Speaker 1: by Justin Threux, and it's essentially a Bill Gates elon
Speaker 1: Musk sort of. You could tell they did not want
Speaker 1: to it didn't it wasn't gonna look like anyone like what.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to piss off Jeff Bezos, I guess
Speaker 1: because you know they're going to be on Prime videos someday.
Speaker 2: Because that could be the two of them clearly.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it was based more on Bill Gates
Speaker 1: and his wife Mackenzie, because Lucy Lou plays Justin Thereux's
Speaker 1: ex wife, and she's a billionaire as well, and there's
Speaker 1: this whole story about trying to get an interview with
Speaker 1: her and blah blah blah blah blah. But a lot
Speaker 1: of the film deals with the collapsing of media and
Speaker 1: the fact that all of these these struggling media outlets
Speaker 1: are relying on olivegarchs and hitch funds to fund them.
Speaker 1: And there's a scramble to try because Runway is the
Speaker 1: owner of Runway dies and then they think his son
Speaker 1: is going to wind up selling it all off, and
Speaker 1: so there's a scramble to try and get a billionaire
Speaker 1: to save Runway, and the billionaire they settle on is
Speaker 1: justin Thereux, which is Emily Blunt's boyfriend.
Speaker 2: I almost didn't recognize him, but yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Can't even quite tell. I know that there was a
Speaker 1: way that gave him a receding hairline, but I think
Speaker 1: he's wearing a prosthetic nose. Yeah, they did something to
Speaker 1: uglify him.
Speaker 2: Chubby well, I mean they yes.
Speaker 1: He's chubbier, and I don't know why, why would you
Speaker 1: cast a hot guy and then unhot him, just cast
Speaker 1: some chubby not hot guy.
Speaker 2: At the time, I was like, is that really him?
Speaker 1: A couple of times I was like that that is
Speaker 1: justin thrue right. It was sort of his unkind of
Speaker 1: canny Valley thing. But there's someone We're like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: would Emily have wound up with a billionaire Olive Ark
Speaker 1: a loser? Like he's like this weird, you know, socially
Speaker 1: awkward Elon Musk type, well money, But I was like,
Speaker 1: is that who she is?
Speaker 2: Is she?
Speaker 1: But then they do a quick scene where you see
Speaker 1: her on the phone with an ex husband who is
Speaker 1: taking care of their kids, and you kind of get
Speaker 1: the impression that her life has not worked out the
Speaker 1: way she thought it was going to work out. When
Speaker 1: she was twenty three and she was Miranda Peasley's assistant.
Speaker 1: And then it comes out much later in film that
Speaker 1: Miranda kind of screwed her over in her career and
Speaker 1: she has a lot of resentment towards Miranda. And god,
Speaker 1: that line do you know which line where Miranda says
Speaker 1: to her, You're not a visionary, You're a vendor.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: In fashion, that is just about the most damning. You're
Speaker 1: basically saying you're a shop girl. You're just a shop girl.
Speaker 1: You can cut the attitude.
Speaker 2: Well, she's working for Door And can we just talk
Speaker 2: about that first outfit? Oh my god, Yeah, her outfit
Speaker 2: drop dead cord.
Speaker 1: She I think she might have had the best. No, actually,
Speaker 1: Meryl did have the best outfits at one point. There's
Speaker 1: that scene on the street where they're getting into the
Speaker 1: limo and I was like, her suit is stunning. Meryl
Speaker 1: suit was.
Speaker 2: And I have to talk about that first look, because
Speaker 2: that's when when a custom design know what she's doing.
Speaker 2: You might look at that it was like, that's too much.
Speaker 2: But if you were in the fashion industry and she
Speaker 2: works at the or, and if you were at and
Speaker 2: you have access to those clothes, that's what you're gonna wear. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and she looked amaeding.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to fully unpack the plot. But
Speaker 1: Emily Blunt's character winds up screwing several people over incruiting
Speaker 1: Miranda Priestley in a bid to take over Runway magazine,
Speaker 1: and I really wasn't bothered by it. But I was
Speaker 1: surprised that they took one of the main characters in
Speaker 1: the first film and said, you know what, her life
Speaker 1: didn't work out well and she's kind of a bitch.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I thought that was actually a bold thing to do.
Speaker 1: And again, I'm not going to unpack how the story unfolds,
Speaker 1: but there is resolution there, and in fact, one of
Speaker 1: the things I want to say here is all I
Speaker 1: feel like the character arcs for the main characters were
Speaker 1: summed up so well that I really hope they never
Speaker 1: do a third one. But if they wanted to do
Speaker 1: a spin off with Emily Blunt's character, I would watch
Speaker 1: an entire movie of her in London working for Burbery
Speaker 1: or something, because she I mean, it's the best role
Speaker 1: she ever had. She's so good in this that I'm like,
Speaker 1: I I would not argue with an Academy Award nomination
Speaker 1: for Best Support RaaS like she's that good in this role.
Speaker 2: I also loved the scene in the Corp when Marriscuprimi
Speaker 2: says too and had the way like you think we're
Speaker 2: going to be friends now? I mean that kind of
Speaker 2: and I thought that was so real. So so the
Speaker 2: industry like this worked for now, you know, like we
Speaker 2: made a good day. Left it there though, Yeah, we
Speaker 2: made a good deal, but it doesn't mean we're going
Speaker 2: to be friends. So I'm going to be on your
Speaker 2: side or or You're going to be on my side
Speaker 2: the whole time, which is very true when you are
Speaker 2: in such a competitive you know, world and industry. That's
Speaker 2: how you feel the whole time.
Speaker 1: Right I I do feel that, Yes, they they leave
Speaker 1: it in such a place that everything's kind of tentative.
Speaker 1: Actually is I'm hoping need into a third one. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's any plan to do.
Speaker 2: I don't think.
Speaker 1: But they make it very clear that runway is quote
Speaker 1: unquote saved, but also that runway probably is going to
Speaker 1: last much longer anyway. And they also kind of make
Speaker 1: it clear that Miranda's just holding on but you know,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of Ego. There was a point at
Speaker 1: which I sat there wondering how much am I supposed
Speaker 1: to feel bad about a wealthy seventy five year old
Speaker 1: woman who probably is at the end of her career. Like,
Speaker 1: you're seventy five and you're wealthy and you're highly accomplished.
Speaker 1: How bad am I supposed to feel? Similarly to Stanley
Speaker 1: Tucci's character, like squish squish boo, who you're You know,
Speaker 1: you're the second in charge at Runway? Okay, you're like
Speaker 1: sixty five, Like I don't mean agism here, but very
Speaker 1: very well accomplished people, Like how badly am I supposed
Speaker 1: to feel for any of you? And I do think
Speaker 1: it ends in a way that doesn't over state where
Speaker 1: they are or what they're doing.
Speaker 2: I have a question, did they recast the husband or
Speaker 2: that's a second husband?
Speaker 1: The second husband? Her husband left her in the first film?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, Kenneth Brownick plays her husband. It's a lovely part,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, why did he agree to that? I
Speaker 1: know it's a big nothing. I guess he agreed with
Speaker 1: it to do scenes with Meryl Streep because I don't
Speaker 1: think they've ever worked together. Same thing with Lucy lil
Speaker 1: there's a major, major plot point that hinges on her character,
Speaker 1: but she is in four minutes of screen time.
Speaker 2: I think everyone wants to be port just wanted to
Speaker 2: be part of it. Everyone wants a piece of this,
Speaker 2: you know, incredible cake. Yeah, that's been going on for
Speaker 2: twenty years.
Speaker 1: But my wrap up is, if you liked it, it's
Speaker 1: very much worth your time. It was not a disappointment
Speaker 1: to at all. It's entertaining. I enjoyed seeing these people again,
Speaker 1: and I very much enjoyed that we weren't just replaying
Speaker 1: hits from twenty years ago. There was an actual story
Speaker 1: there and it felt current.
Speaker 2: I was gonna see it anyway, of course, of course,
Speaker 2: but I'm I was pleased. I think I think they
Speaker 2: did a good job. Yeah, I agree, but it Yeah,
Speaker 2: fashion is great.
Speaker 1: We highly recommend it, highly recommend it. And I think
Speaker 1: that's it for this week. We are going to wrap
Speaker 1: things up and immediately record a second podcast, Movie Club,
Speaker 1: But we will be back next week with our regular
Speaker 1: podcast with whatever crosses our eyes across our desk. Until then,
Speaker 1: take care of yourselves, love you mean it, Bye bye bye.