Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci in 'The Devil Wears Prada 2.'

Macall Polay/20th Century Studios

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If you go into The Devil Wears Prada 2 looking for fierce fashion porn, bitchy put-downs and a fresh dose of Meryl Streep’s iconic performance as imperious Anna Wintour clone Miranda Priestly, you are unlikely to be disappointed. Arriving 20 years after the original, David Frankel’s sequel hits familiar beats that fans will eat up and deftly reconfigures the core trio of women into new adversarial positions, even if it ultimately lapses into cozy sentimentality. The movie is best when it sticks to fluffy, fun nostalgia rather than shooting for substance.

Detractors immune to the cult-like adoration for the high-sheen original had issues with its shallowness, toothless fashion industry satire and anemic storyline. It’s hard to skewer aspirational luxury when you’re drooling over it. The late-series Sex and the City vibe (the canonical HBO show was a stepping-stone for Frankel when he was cutting his teeth as a director) that made the material seem already dated two decades back is even more nagging here, not that the huge fanbase who just want the glamour and romance are going to care.

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The Devil Wears Prada 2

The Bottom Line

A capably maneuvered glam offensive.

Release date: Friday, May 1

Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Justin Theroux, Lucy Liu, Kenneth Branagh, B.J. Novak, Simone Ashley, Tracie Thoms, Tibor Feldman, Patrick Brammall, Caleb Hearon, Helen J. Shen

Director: David Frankel

Screenwriter: Aline Brosh McKenna, based on characters created by Lauren Weisberger

Rated PG-13,

1 hour 52 minutes

Returning screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna aims for relevancy this time by padding the story with quasi-topical points. The sharpest of them is a close-to-the-bone commentary on the death of journalism, in both news media and ad-depleted fash mags. (Disney, among other studios, is helping to dig that grave by adopting the now almost standard strategy of keeping critics gagged until pants-wetting influencers have shaped the narrative on social media.)

Then there’s the introduction of tech billionaire Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux), who’s basically Jeff Bezos with hair. Having extricated himself from his first marriage to the now stonking rich Sasha (Lucy Liu), he attempts to buy the film’s Vogue stand-in, Runway, as a toy for his calculating new girlfriend, whose identity we won’t disclose. But in true American oligarchy spirit, he sees no value in media in a world coasting toward extinction and instead is looking for a new planet to ravage. This thread is barely a comedy sketch.

Even thinner is a potentially timely dig at the luxury real estate boom, a legitimate issue in New York City in the grip of a housing crisis. Former assistant to Miranda, Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), lobs some sanctimonious indignation at her half-baked new love interest, Australian architect Peter (Patrick Brammall), a suave Pierce Brosnan type who designed a new high-end apartment block. But through some kind of illogical plot contortion, she is soon living there, at which point you might ask, “Wait, girl, what was that objection about ripping out heritage buildings and replacing them with rich-people pads again?” Maybe she was persuaded because her old friend Lily (Tracie Thoms) declared it time for her to get a grownup apartment?

Remind me, are we critiquing conspicuous displays of wealth or endorsing them? You could get whiplash trying to figure out where this movie stands on ostentatious luxury.

Tellingly, a twinkly shot of the Manhattan skyline, in real life now blighted by pencil-shaped high-rises, appears to have been digitally scrubbed to preserve the nostalgic glow. What’s most noticeable is the absence of 262 Fifth Avenue, the Russian-owned and -designed skyscraper that has rankled many New Yorkers by blocking the South view of the Empire State Building. The movie gestures toward the real world but is unequivocally selling the fantasy. Which, again, will be just what the target audience ordered.

In the intervening years since we last saw her, Andy has been toiling as a Serious Journalist at a Hard-Hitting News Outlet called The Vanguard. But just as she’s announced as the winner of a journalism award at a fancy dinner, her phone and those of all her colleagues at the table light up with texts informing them that the publicatio

'The Devil Wears Prada 2' Review: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway Are Back