Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

UP THE CATALOGUE (2024): An aging actress is trapped as hostess of the purgatorial 4Q shopping network. Boasts a few nice surreal gags (the owl) and an all-in performance from Lyndsey Marshal, but struggles to gain traction on addressing the deeper existential issues it toys with. 2.5/5.

[M.10rda]

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 (2026):
I saw the original once in the theater 20 years and remembering thinking it was surprisingly fine (mostly due to the acting) though as it turns out I remember very little about it beyond the general impressions of the main characters and their relationships. I was in no hurry to see this one but watched it with Madame nonetheless and - I'd say it must be just about what someone who wanted a sequel would want from a sequel.

Meryl Streep is about the same as she was in the first one, giving something close to a real performance in spite of long since joining the ranks of Canonical Great Actors like Robert DeNiro who aren't actually expected to give real performances anymore. Stanley Tucci overdelivers (as he did in the first one), which isn't a criticism, just an acknowledgement of the wonder that is peak Tucci. (More to his credit, he could steal the spotlight more ruthlessly than he does but actually underplays tastefully in his biggest scene.) I was more impressed w/ Emily Blunt in 2006 when she was fresh but she's essentially still Emily Blunt. But then there's Anne Hathaway. I liked Anne Hathaway in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, was really taken w/ her performance in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, and then settled in to a more or less passive appreciation of her in everything since. Here Hathaway demonstrates why she is a credible Movie Star as opposed to just an actress. She carries the movie on the strength of her likeability, charisma, humor, and - well, to employ the film's own cosmetic standards - her size 6 figure and her eyebrows (...both of which the other characters tell us are outre and undesireable)........ all in lieu of actually having a convincing character of depth provided by the screenplay. Anyway, I prefer Hathaway's Movie Stardom to that of Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman.

Since I've written recently about a couple of early 30s flicks with seemingly unconscious or only semi-conscious politics (and generally can't help but read politics into most of what I watch), I'll mention another small way in which DWP2 surprised me pleasantly. Although the film remains semi-agnostic about corporatism, oligarchy, and Artificial Intelligence, it at least acknowledges (and dedicates several scenes to) the fact that some reasonable people think all three things are incredibly destructive to human life as we know it and will know it in the future. That's not quite activism or enlightenment, but it constitutes more awareness than I tend to expect from major studio IP.   

3.5/5    There is at least one scene though where a character texts a lengthy inquiry to another character and receives a comprehensive reply within five seconds of screentime, so, not a perfect film.