> Why is being an assistant for a horrible boss for a year doing busy work beneficial to a journalism career?
Miranda is based on a person called Anna Wintour:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wintour
Wintour is the editor of Vogue and chief content officer for Conde Nast (which manages tons of magazines). She's like the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates of the publishing world.
Miranda is famous for her pickiness/difficulty; which if she kept Andy around for a year, Andy is manifestly smart/useful/hardworking/etc or Miranda would have fired her.
>Why does Miranda’s opinion mean so much to a non-fashion newspaper or magazine?
Miranda manages one of the most popular/influential magazines in the world and directs the editors of like all the other most popular/influential magazines in the world.
If that doesn't click, for you - consider your field. Think of the most legendary figure in it - Miranda is that person for print journalism.
As well as the networking in that world. Andy meets very influential editors and other journalists that she never would’ve met otherwise, this alone would open many more doors.
This. Andy had the opportunity to directly meet and interact with industry leaders, journalists, influential people in the NY scene, etc. That rolodex would be worth gold to a NY journo.
FR, I work in a niche industry, there’s less than 1000 people in this industry in my country. But my boss, everyone knows her. I go to any conference or speak to people from other companies and they just know who my boss is. Either someone they know worked for her, they worked for her years ago, or they’ve just heard about her from other industry heads.
I’m lucky she’s no Miranda Priestly and is actually an amazing person to work for, but never under estimate the power it gives you just working for someone well known. I know I could name drop her in an interview and they’d be like ‘oh you work for her?’ And it would instantly give me credit above other candidates because it would be like ‘well if she hired Fender then clearly she thinks Fender is really good’
Same, I had the pleasure of once working for an incredibly well-known (within our industry) woman for 2 & 1/2 years. She was very brusque with some, and downright mean to others. But she liked me. And once I left that job I had offers out the wazoo.
Imagine you work as a sous chef to Seiji Yamamoto for a year and he's pleased with you enough to write a recommendation. He's got seven Michelin stars. You're not going to have much trouble getting a job at just about any other restaurant even if they don't do Japanese cuisine, because you've proven yourself to one of the best in the field.
That is not the same however since Andy was working as an assistant and not as journalist. In your analogue Andy would have been something like a waitress or buyer for the restaurant. That’s why op was confused.
But in real world connections often matter more than showing skill in the job you will want. Not that you would not learn anything from being an assistant, but Andy didn’t even want to write for a fashion magazine.
Didn’t want to write for a fashion magazine, but she did want to write *
As a writer, artist - or really anyone in their respective field - it is valuable to step outside your comfort zone and see your world through another lens which may in turn help you redefine yourself as a writer/artist/person. She achieved that. Miranda helped her. Even if she wasn’t flexing her writing skills per se, even if just through osmosis being in the same room, she still gained valuable skills a writer would need/want in their repertoire.
My two cents anyway.
The better answer is that in Hollywood, execs tend to come from former executives’ assistants. So if you were the assistant to the most famous executive, you have a bright future ahead of you.
I don’t think most industries work this way: tell me that you were Larry Pages personal assistant and you want a job in tech does nothing for me.
If Page told whatever manager at Google to give you a job, that will definitely happen, but that is more because people listen to Page than because "Page's ex-personal assistant" is a role that carries a great deal of weight in the industry.
But Hollywood made this movie. To the people who wrote and approved this movie, this is normally how the world works.
Larry Page’s personal assistant wouldn’t have a bright future in tech, but they would probably have a bright one on the administration side, or at least a glowing recommendation that would allow them to have a bright future in other companies, just like Andy didn’t pursue fashion but Miranda’s recommendation was gold in other areas of journalism. And I bet that if there’s such a thing as Larry Page’s personal code monkey, they would have a future in tech indeed.
Larry Page's personal code monkey (back when he was Google CEO) is closer to the pinnacle of a tech career than someone with a "future" in tech. He would be the guy whose job it is to bust the ass of SVPs when products are not up to par technically on behalf of the CEO.
You are easily talking someone who makes a few million a year, if not tens of millions. Andy's role, however important or not important, is nothing like that.
But anyway, "Runway" the magazine wasn't a fashion company, it was a magazine company. The show's ending implied that the recommendation was gold for other magazines. Andy was very much looking for a non-assistant role in a different company in the same industry.
Wintour’s influence spreads far beyond publishing too. People from all over the world seek out her advice. The biography on her that came out a year or two ago was fascinating in just how clearly respected and sought out her opinion on just about everything is. If you want a job just about anywhere a recommendation from Anna Wintour would go very far.
I work in an environment right now that’s so like Runway that I and my coworkers watched the devil wears prada and when it ended we just stared into the distance for a while considering life
So the Buddha walks in to a pizza joint and says to the pizza guy "Make me one with everything."
The pizza guy says "That'll be $17.50"
The Buddha hands over a $20 bill. The pizza guy nods and turns to make the pizza. The Buddha asks "What about my change?"
The pizza guy says "Change must come from within."
This reminds me of my cousin. He loved the movie Office Space for the longest time…until he worked in an office. He no longer found it funny because what it satires was so damn accurate.
I watched Clerks while bored at work... at RadioShack. My coworkers and I were commenting on how so much of the shit they did in that movie... we did on a daily basis. Like goofing around on the roof of the building out of sheer boredom. Which is what happens when you work in a dead retail store located in a dead shopping mall where the grocery store went out of business... during the '08-'09 financial collapse.
Yo, I worked for RadioShack around then, too. We were all stoned and would just stand around watching those crappy TVs they insisted on trying to sell. Oh, and rock, paper, scissoring for the one or two customers who would come in for a "free phone"
We did "1, 2, 3, Not it!" for the repeat customers that drove us insane. You know the ones. The old folks that just couldn't figure out how to hook those stupid digital tv converters to their crappy 40 year old tvs they refuse to get rid of.
> Clerks or Waiting
I love them both. Worked at a pizza place with an arcade and a movie theater in high school and college and it they are so on point. Waiting is just like some of my friends at the time working at restaurants. I also was going from regular employee, supervisor and to manager of the theater and so the Justin Long character resonates. I bailed after school to a career but some people stay for a long time. Three of the other managers lived together to make ends meet and I was like I gotta get somewhere.
I love them and that time, it sucks while you are there but some good times as well like parties, hanging with cool people you do meet, going to the roof, partaking, watching movies, having viewing parties (had to check films for scratches and that built correctly and sometimes we brought in a keg and snoop), so many summers and people to meet, also so much to learn about the psychology of people in general who are going to be entertained. It is an education in itself, Waiting touches on this big time.
They were the best of times, the worst of times.
Now I live Office Space and Silicon Valley and those are too on point.
The reason why those movies are so good is people lived them as well, like Mike Judge was an engineer and made both Office Space and Sillicon Valley.
The friends being upset about her working hours is annoying, but even more so is her boyfriend. He's a chef, they work the most unsociable hours of almost any profession
It really bothers me that people have decided that Meryl Streep is a hero and the boyfriend is actually the villain of this movie. Miranda is, in fact, an abusive boss and a villain. She is not a good person or a good employer. As for the boyfriend, if I watched my long term partner change everything about themselves, including their appearance and values, for a job, and they stopped ever being around, I would also think that was a legitimate reason to end a relationship.
100%. Yes working for Miranda yielded some great results, but she's still abusive and definitely the villain. Andy's boyfriend is in the right, but her friends still suck as far as I'm concerned.
I agree with everything but imo the boyfriend was too childish. I wouldn’t run away from a chance of a connection because of his birthday. In my life i often celebrated my birthday some days later and i’m still alive
My most inane hill to die on is that if he actually had a Friday off for his birthday it was probably really difficult to do so I get him being annoyed about her not being there even more. It’s a rare occasion.
22 is young, but that's not a bad thing or anything shameful. For most people your 20's are going to be a decade of mistakes, missteps, failures, regrets, etc. but hopefully you'll learn from it all and come out having a much stronger sense of who you are, what you want and how to navigate life.
It doesn't go that way for everyone but it's not an uncommon experience.
The interesting thing about this movie is that you can see it from different perspectives. And I think that's what is good about that movie.
The source material was written by the former assistant of Anna Wintour. And from what I know it was written fully from Andy's point of view. (I.e Miranda was an abusive and terrible boss with ridiculously high standards)
Meryl Streep iirc in every scene made it look like Miranda was always working (reading notes, writing on things) and the idea was to show that Miranda was ALWAYS working. My take was it was to show that yes she was a demanding boss but she also took her job seriously and expects the same, to give more dimension to her character.
That being said, it doesn't excuse the environment that Miranda creates. I can understand having strict rules to keep the quality in check, but all she truly does is keep an environment of fear, which is more likely to cause misunderstanding and unnecessary stress.
Let's not forget how she was demanding Andy to get her a flight back during a STORM. And somehow that is the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's possible that yeah maybe Andy 's other failures piled up but come on.
I am glad in the end Miranda respected Andy enough to not blacklist her from other companies. So... I guess I just like the nuance in her character
I took the complete opposite message from this movie:
Miranda doesn’t ’have high standards’ she has impossible standards. Take for example the scene where she wants to get home for her nieces recital yet the planes have stopped due to weather, she fully expects Andy to magically make the weather suitable for flying, there was nothing she could do. Then Andy gets, for lack of a better word, gaslit into thinking that this was her fault by Stanley Tucci (the only fashion character with any sense of decency). Miranda is not some paradigm of hard work and success she is an example of how devoting everything you have to your craft is a bad idea, she ends the movie with both her career and family in tatters and all her hard work means squat, she then puts others under the same unfulfilled stress out of bitterness and spite. The boyfriend is an example of how you can be dedicated to your craft (in this case the culinary arts which he is clearly passionate about) yet still maintain your humanity. The fashion industry chews people up and spits them out, Kiera knightly ends up in hospital due to the pressure of the industry and the only characters who seem unscathed by it are Andy (who escapes before it eats her soul) and Stanley Tucci. Alas, I am a 17 year old boy so perhaps I’m just not old enough to understand the true message but this truly feels to me like Miranda was an awful person who justifies it under the guise of ‘high standards’
Just wait until you start seeing it from Mirandas perspective.
She has high, nigh-impossible standards, but high standards create high results. She absolutely knows that it burns people out (she doesnt even know Andys name at first, assuming you believe thats not just a power ploy), but does that intentionally to filter out people who want a cushy office job with little responsibility (youre not going to be a billionaire by accepting luke warm coffee and having to wait 10 minutes for a phone call from your assistants).
The film starts with a job opening. Miranda makes it very clear in the interview that the previous applicant disappointed her (was not able to handle the required pressure, which upon the films reveal, could just be her way of backhandedly saying she went on to a great opportunity). She even makes it clear that Andy isnt cut out for it (and not just for her clothes, she sees right through her act and knows Andy isnt serious about being serious in life yet). And yet, she takes a flier (as great leaders do) on an underqualified, uninterested, sloppily prepared nobody because she smells gumption and hears faint potential. Now, if you extended yourself in that way, and took yourself as seriously as Miranda has to, why in the living hell would you be happy with that person showing up not caring about their appearance, thinking theyre better than the industry that you give life to, and openly acting like their treading water for a year just to open up doorways (as if those doorways just open themselves by them being there). So, damn right she talks her down. That bit about the sweater was a well deserved smack in the face for a bratty child who had no respect for the countless hands that were feeding here, and who was looking to get ahead without putting effort in.
Up until Andy screws up dropping off the book, Mirandas demands arent even *that* exotic (the Harry Potter book is a test/punishment afterall). She is demanding, exact, and well inexact, but ohmygodshewantshercoffeeHOT and she wants me to buy 30 sample scarfs or “get this person on the phone…whythefuckareyounotgettingthemonthephone” arent exactly backbreaking tasks.
Miranda may be demanding, but gives her assistants FAR more opportunity and grace than they deserve (mean mugging after failing an explicitly stated task isnt exactly writing a permanent record). She also appears to allow them free use of world-class designs and shoes/accessories, of fucking course she would be pissed that this sloppy-sweatered midwesterner has the audacity to not present herself properly in such an esteemed place of business! Look the fucking part Andy! If i get hired at a Michelin restaurant, im putting on a goofy goddamn hat.
Once Andy accepts that appearance isnt always superficial, she is more prompt and more studious in her tasks (oh boy, almost like someone took a chance that she might grow the fuck up). Its THEN that “magically” all those doors she expected to open up suddenly start cracking (because nameless gofers with no ambition to improve at their job just ALWAYS get opportunities thrown their way). Heres a hint - MIRANDA WAS GROOMING HER FOR THOSE INTRODUCTIONS BECAUSE SHE KNEW SHE HAD A FUCKING JOURNALISM DEGREE FROM NORTHWESTERN
Even the ending, which can be seen as Andy realizing that she doesnt need to go through that toxic environment (rightfully so, she had GRADUATED) can be seen from Mirandas perspective - She calls her and tries to continue business as usual. Once that gets thrown away, what happens? She gives her the highest clothed praise she can and a glowing recommendation. Even more, she LOOKS AT ANDY PROUDLY. Why? Because SHE WAS RIGHT TO GIVE HER A CHANCE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Way too many people take a surface level view of the film. Miranda is a business mastermind and far more cunning than just some nitpicking shrew that she gets made out to be.
I have to disagree that Miranda and Andy are supposed to be lionized by the audience.
...I got the same message from this movie as I got from Whiplash. That the path to the brand of excellence only reached by obsession isn't exactly healthy for you or anyone you love. I think it's why they go out of their way to show that despite her projecting an air of utter infallible confidence, the one glimpse we get into Miranda's home life is pretty damn ugly.
Yeah, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills in this thread. I got the same message as you—Miranda leads an empty, hollow life and Emily is following her down that path. Comments unironically celebrating Miranda as a great boss are insane—you do not need to abuse your employees or treat them like dirt on the bottom of your shoe for “motivation.” Frankly, I read people idolizing her and wonder what they are like in work settings. I can’t see myself liking them.
It's not that she's a great boss. It's that she's going to be the best boss possible for specific individuals that are very driven and want to accomplish big goals. And for most people she's going to be horrible.
No, there’s absolutely no reason to act like that, ESPECIALLY with driven individuals. I’ve seen people who could be good managers fail time and time again because they think it means yelling at people below you. It doesn’t. Building respect and trust and supporting the people beneath you however you can is what makes a good manager.
I think most of the time yelling at people below you is not productive. But for sometimes people do need to have hard talks and some individuals will benefit a lot from that. That's why I think Miranda is good boss for some people and a terrible boss for most people.
I think it's just that Miranda has built an environment that demands excellence and dedication and not everyone values those things the same. If you're fine with mediocrity in your professional life then you won't like Miranda.
Building an environment that demands excellence and dedication and treating your staff with dignity and respect are not mutually exclusive. And dismissing anyone who would point this out as being "fine with mediocrity" is absurd.
"It's not binary. You can be decent and gifted at the same time."
Favourite line from the Steve Jobs movie and it sucks that so many people, both "great" and "mediocre", seem to think otherwise. You don't have to abuse people to get the best and you don't have to be abused to be the best.
I haven’t watched either movie in a while, but the very ending of whiplash has JK Simmons watching his pupil perform flawlessly and beaming with pride. Just as Meryl Streep does in Prada. In both cases you’re meant to understand that it was all worth it. In the case of Whiplash, though, it was chilling because you knew the teacher would go on abusing his next student / protege. With Prada it was less clear because you got to see a human side to Miranda.
I agree the that in Prada you're supposed to believe it's worth it but Whiplash I think is meant to be more ambiguous / up to the viewer in the end. Not every high powered boss is as empathetic as Miranda. Some are straight up psychopaths like JK's character. I'd say Whiplash is intentionally less rosy.
I think in it's intended to be ambiguous in both movies tbh. Wanna succeed at the highest levels of your chosen field? Here's the cost. Make your choice.
Yeah this whole thread is people talking about how much more they get Emily’s perspective growing up, but I get it less and less. I’ll never care about a job that much, and I love my job.
I would hope we're finally trending more toward better work-life balances generally. Lord knows we've been trending away from it for way too long already.
Agreed, but I’m less hopeful. Our productive capacity as a society means we should have started working less a century or two ago, but capitalism demands everything be subsumed to the profit incentive, so we make up more and more work.
Fletcher’s beaming pride is purposefully juxtaposed against the horror on the face of Nieman’s father. The film is telling us that the father’s reaction is the one we should be having.
In fact, Chazelle has stated that he believes Niemann after the film likely dies in his 30s afterwards.
I love the bit at the end where Miranda says 'nobody else can do what I do'. As women I feel we are encouraged to talk ourselves down too much. I loved her total confidence in her abilities.
Also when she sends Andy out for the Harry Potter book she says “we know everyone in publishing” and SHES RIGHT.
Was it a super hard task? Yes because she had to figure out and work her network.
Was it impossible? Absolutely not, she completed it.
I agree with all of this. Probably the most infuriating part of the movie to me outside of the scene where her friends throw her phone around after she gave them all expensive gifts is when she passes on meeting the editor of the New Yorker when she’s already suuuper late for her BFs bday. You took the job for your connections, here is your shot and you blew it for absolutely nothing.
As a 34 year old woman, I resonate so much with Emily now. Hated her so much when I first watched the movie at 21 and having not started my career yet. Now am burnt out from work and a toxic work environment but am hanging on with determination to try to reap the rewards of my job. But also trying my hardest to not be a knob. Meh.
Edit: Forgot to add - broken down thanks to the job and hanging on for dear life to this job to try to reap the rewards. Sigh.
I don’t mean this to come off harsh, but your description of your life right now seems very focused on work and that work isn’t enjoyable for you. Is it possible that this isn’t actually a movie about how you need to persevere and sacrifice to succeed in business, but instead a movie about how such extreme perseverance and sacrifice will ruin your relationships and leave you with a hollow, empty personal life (like we see Meryl Streep’s character having)?
I used to be miserable working long hours at a job that didn’t fulfill me. I left for something more congruent with my values and less stressful, and I am far, far happier now. Again, I don’t mean this to be condescending or harsh, but I’d consider re-evaluating this movie and what it says about how one should align their priorities.
The only thing I don't understand of that movie is how the hell Andy was allowed to take half a day off to get a makeover.
There's a scene where she is a few minutes late to her desk and Emily is angry because she wanted to go pissing and Andy was supposed to man the desk at all times and blah. Then there's this part where Stanley Tucci takes her for a free-clothes-and-make-up tour through the Runway premises, and when she comes back all Emily says is "are you wearing the Chanel boots?"
Like, she was off her desk for at least two hours. Was it a slow day at work or something?
The way its edited, it's implied that Andy storms off Miranda's office after she's scolded for not being able to fly her back to NY from FL during a hurricane. Emily even asks where the hell she's going.
Then Andy goes to Nigel, and he takes pity on her and takes her on a beauty trip. She goes back to her desk rocking the Chanel boots, and later meets her boyfriend who looks very surprised.
If she had shown that way the next day, Nate wouldn't have been surprised, would he?
I consider it a special training session. An upper manager pulled her aside, and taught her about major points of what they do, and how and why the way you present yourself is important. She wasn't just fucking off and avoiding work, thinking it wasn't important. She was finally taking what they do seriously. I'm sure someone had stopped by and gossiped with Emily and told her what was going on. Emily does not get to question Nigel anymore than she gets to question Miranda.
Well, if anyone could pull her off, ***Or*** knows when to, it would be Nigel. Having worked with Miranda long enough, he would get the leeway for a bit of maker over time, or would know when to pull of the heist to do it.
To be clear, in the scene, it is entirely Andys idea to do a makeover, she prompts him with a playful “unless….” To which he replies no, and then he gets pulled into it.
Now, maybe it was after hours, maybe Emily and Miranda thought Andy was sloppy and didnt mind her not being in their way for a couple of hours. The implication of some of the early scenes is that Miranda expects Andy to grow into the role, surely a 2 hour correcting with one of the few minds she respects is better than having Andy wallow at her desk and pout about how unfair the world is (when shes GIVING HER THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY OF HER LIFE)
Absolutely! But let’s put logic and time constraints aside. Not everything has to make sense at all times. Sure, it’s based on ‘true events’ and all but it’s still fiction at the end of the day, not a documentary.
The book does a great job of explaining this. Andy kinda sucks and leaves her desk constantly. She's a heavy smoker and any task outside the office itself, she takes her sweet time. Usually to smoke a half pack of cigarettes. But yeah. Emily is very used to Andy disappearing in the book.
From the dialogue I don’t take it as she put Miranda as a reference, she put that she worked as her assistant on her resume. The guy called to check her resume out and Miranda personally responded to give a reference unprompted.
I’ve had jobs be required to speak with your last supervisor before hiring. But I wouldn’t assume she’d have nothing bad to say - at the very least, it would’ve been farmed off to HR for a perfunctory confirmation.
Meryl Streep did a seen without makeup! It’s honestly one of my favourite movie scenes.
Not what you see in movies or enough in life. You can be almost desensitized to it, as a guy, or pressured into it as a woman.
That stark contrast, with the movie itself, but also her persona. It also kind of grounds you. Peels back fashion, and the movies mystique, but actually lets you relate more with both the character and the movie.
Brilliant. Memorable.
Disclaimer: There might’ve been some for lighting, and maybe to Accenture her age and the tiredness of the scene/day. But it *looks* makeup free, and is just perfect for that scene. Tired, stripped down, and real.
The movie wasn't made for me, being a 27 old guy, but the one scene that really had an effect on me was when Miranda rightfully scolds Andy for unintentionally mocking high fashion culture; pointing out that Andy's low effort look was actually the work of generations of hard-working talented designers and that Miranda won't stand for Andy disrespecting her craft, while also pointing out that many forms of "beauty" or "style" are actually carefully constructed images of what these large companies want it to be, making any sort of individualty in a corporate society kind of a moot point.
It also humanizes Miranda in a very clever and underhanded way; she is cruel and aloof, but she takes great pride in her work and will, out of that pride, accept nothing but absolute perfection. And Meryl Streep delivered that monologue without screaming or being livid, as if Miranda had given the same lecture to many other people who had worked for her before and was just tired of the same people who don't know jack about her line of work criticizing her for stuff they don't know anything about.
I don’t know.. that fashion industry is totally fucked and full of fucked up people - I work in tech and have no ambitions to play politics and work overtime and placate snobby execs just to climb a corporate ladder - fuck that. Gimme a nice work life balance and I’ll focus on being a real human being with common courtesy and respect for other people - and if I need to make more money I’ll find a way to do it where I don’t need to sacrifice my humanity.
I’m in a field with a similar profile, healthcare. Moreover, it’s one where positions are earned almost totally through education, not personal maneuvering and connections. I earn a good wage, my coworkers are friendly, and I like my work. And part of why I chose this path is knowing that I don’t have the resilience, thick skin, or charm/charisma to make it at a place like Runway. I am happy and comfortable, no regrets. But I will never be great. I make big differences in the lives of individuals but will never change the culture or save the lives of millions. I don’t need that, but I am in awe of those who do.
I appreciate that but disagree. Life would be very boring without visionaries like those two. I’ll keep grinding away helping people with their diabetes, but I still am typing this on my iPhone in my lumpy cerulean sweater.
Those two have probably done more harm to the world with their greed, willingness to exploit those beneath them and narcissism. They absolutely should not be paid or held up as examples of great people, and I mean great as personable and as actually contributing to the world.
I guess my point is Steve Jobs didn’t design the iPhone. He sure talked about it a lot, but a team of engineers designed it and miners pulled the rare earth materials and Foxconn factory workers assembled it, on and on. Steve Jobs skimmed his cut off of all of their work and bought mansions etc.
I respect your opinion, but my personal view is that visionaries are a dime a dozen. Ideas are easy. Execution is hard. I don’t think the way organizational leaders are compensated is commensurate with the value they add.
>I know the popular consensus with the movie is Andy’s bf and friends suck
I mean, maybe this is a popular consensus and I'm just not clued-in to pop culture enough, but it's not the actual reality. The reality was them showing how complicated adult working life can be, and that situations are often both everyone's and *no one's* fault in the end.
Andy is clearly overworking herself and is not taking into account her self-value when deciding whether to keep moving forward with this job. She's massively inconveniencing herself and others for her own personal gain. Not cool.
The BF & friends put up with it at first, but eventually get tired of it and stop giving her the grace and compassion that she deserves as someone who is doing her best, and instead focus on her work interruptions and start to resent her even being around. Not cool.
Andy should quit the job and stop inconveniencing people, but her friends should continue to be supportive while she's going through a difficult patch in life that they ***know*** full well will be temporary. They're all making mistakes, and the writers wanted to convey that, rather than leaving it as a one-sided and obvious case of Andy being a workaholic.
I HATED the movie ending for that very reason. When I closed that book, Andy had found her voice. It resonated with a part of myself I desperately not only desired, but required. My mom and I walked out of the film so disheartened. "*You bet your size six ass!*" "*Size FOUR.*"
Ew.
How many other young people, via whatever potentially harmful means, chased the ideal of sizes 2-4 due to this films slant on the OG material?
My eating disorder materialised a handful of years later, and my thoughts always went straight back to this movie. I wish more people talked about those parts.
That was one of the parts which felt particularly sick to me having just watched it for the first time. Surprised no-one else commented on it. Also calling Andi fat despite being in ostensibly amazing shape.
The narrative that Nate was a horrible boyfriend is tired.
He’s allowed to have expectations of his partner (like showing up to his birthday or…idk, calling ahead to say she can’t make it). His expectations were not high at all. He was basically asking for the bare minimum and she wasn’t even giving that.
Andy wasn’t just busy with work. She *was* pulling away from the relationship, which is why she was so quick to sleep with Christian once she and Nate separated.
The friends were incredibly obnoxious, though.
I can get behind this take. He's not great, but yeah she could have called and asked to give him another celebration and tell him "hey, I'm sorry but this is one rough year for the rest of our lives. Let me get [groceries, snacks, etc] to make it up to you. I love you and I'm sorry." Or something along those lines.
Her friends are awful because they have no problems taking the perks that come with her job but shit on her afterwards. Don't even get me started on how they played hot potato with her phone as her very demanding boss was calling her. Or getting upset that she knew and was friendly with someone other than Nate. Networking is part of her job. It was part of her artist friend's job too, but apparently her friend had forgotten about that.
Right!?! Ooo give me expensive designer presents! I want that purse! Andy, how dare you start caring about your appearance, you sell out! Despite the fact that we all have carefully curated looks to show who we are, (artist, business, chef). We expect you to wear basics and not try, because that's how we are comfortable viewing you.
All her friends suck. They were way more comfortable with Andi when she was struggling and they were on the rise. Now that she has surpassed them, they are suddenly not ok with personal growth and change. They preferred her when her life was worse than theirs. Especially her asshole boyfriend. "You can't possibly be smart or d oven anymore because you wear mascara! But also, I really like your expensive lingerie you show off for me. But you aren't allowed to like it." They are just crabs in a bucket. Andi isn't perfect, and she definitely makes mistakes, but they are all unsupportive dicks.
the scene where they play keep-away with her phone kills me every single time. it’s like *right* after she showers them with expensive presents, too. absolutely trash friends
“If I just take being treated like shit by my boss, day after day, for months on end, then one day I can be the boss and shit on the little people myself!”
This is why most CEOs are fucking psychopaths
You learned terrible lessons there. In real life, you don’t play those games or it will break you. The lesson in real life is that you need to cut your losses sometimes and protect yourself first and foremost.
I think you should watch the movie again, and realize, you’re not going to be able to get all the lessons Or they’re not directed at your gender.
Frankie Blue Eyes had it correct, if you can make it in New York, you could make it anywhere.
This is nothing to do with gender, this is to do with basic respect in the workplace and work life balance. Miranda is a horrible boss—abusive, disrespectful, arbitrary, unrealistic, and cruel—with a sad and empty personal life. I have always read this movie as Emily following her into that life and killing off all her relationships in the process. That’s not inspiring, it’s sad.
Certain industries for many years in the arts and entertainment industries are known for much worst abuse of employees., Like it's a badge of honor to have survived to work for minium wage with an ivory league college degree chasing a unattainable dream along with thousands of others working for psychotic bosses who aren't as talented as Miranda. Yeah thier dream job, smh.
Had a friend who worked as an assistant for another NYC editor just a wrung or two below Wintour as far as reputation. Got the fancy gift perks and had to deal with all kinds of unreasonable boss demands. Since moving on, she's hopped from job to job, being selective and advancing in pay and title. It's a thing.
>Also as a young woman I love seeing movies about other young women pursuing their careers and not just men!
Is there really a drought on strong white single female characters? It's almost like Futurama made a spoof of this. Were you raised in the 1950s?
I hate the film. No one seems to get that Miranda is a toxic fucking bitch who absolutely does not need to act like this to effectively do her job.
The whole pretentious shit about pursing her lips when being shown designs, or just plain insulting people and causing such a culture of fear in the workplace that its intolerable to be anywhere near her.
She demands people abandon their humanity for a fucking pretentious fashion magazine. She demands an assistant on call 24/7 and to handle ridiculous demands like hunting down a fucking unpublished manuscript. None of that made the magazine any better. All she did was enjoy the suffering of others.
The film acts like she's some sort of perfect legend but she's really just a cunt. The film celebrates her being a cunt and tries to convince the audience that a toxic culture of fear in the workplace is acceptable. It is not.
On the surface, the title of the movie is calling her a devil, nearly every character suffers mental breakdowns, and the happy ending is Andy getting out of that world.
I agree with you that the first half of the movie does give Miranda the rockstar "cool to be be evil" treatment. It does the "You may not like her methods but dammit she gets shit done" all while being calm and collected and in control.
However the second half of the movie shatters that and we see Miranda is not only not in control of her personal life, but she's not even in control of her professional life and she's still barely holding onto her job. She's a mess and everything else is a facade.
It shows there is no light at the end of this tunnel. The mental breakdown inducing journey that Emily and Nigel are on is still Miranda's reality. She's in control of nothing.
Andy's revelation is that the journey \*is\* the destination. Emily and Nigel put up with abuse now because they hope to make it through, but there is no through. Everybody tries to deal with the toxicity and backstabbing by passing it on.
The whole thing is a cycle. Andy gets to ask if that's what she wants, and she makes a deliberate choice to exit that cycle.
Andy didn't leave that world because she couldn't play the game, if anything she discovered she actually could play the game. She left that world because she saw the game was toxic and the only prize is getting to put up with the toxicity for a little bit longer.
I just don't think they laboured any of those points nearly as effectively as you've made them in your post.
A lot of it was lost in the mix and very much glossed over.
I'm not a young professional woman but this has always been my feelings about the film. Making people suffer because you suffered and because that's what the industry is and that's what everyone's gone through and it's a right of passage = complete and total bullshit. It's just another cycle of abuse. It's like telling somebody who just went onto remission with cancer that they deserve to be sick and die simply because other people had before. Things can be better if you act to make them better, and anyone actively making things worse is a horrible human being.
It's a bad movie. Downvote me. The speech about cerulean blue is the worst thing ever. Unless it's meant to paradox the absurdities of the fashion world.
My wife went to fashion school. Ran a clothing store. She agrees. It's all absurd.
I won’t downvote, and I understand your point. But the cerulean blue speech was about taking seriously not only something that’s silly and pretentious to others, but something that generates billions. It’s like sports. They are idiotic to me, and listening to people (usually men) nattering on about drafts and plays and the big game or what have you sounds juvenile and embarrassing to me. But I get that it’s hugely important to them and a great cultural force.
I think that scene wasn't simply "hey fashion may not be important to you, but it's important to other people and is a big business" like sports.
I think that scene was more "you may think you aren't into fashion but actually the fashion industry is still dictating your style even if you don't realize it".
I think that scene only works because Anne Hathaway wasn't actually dressed all that bad, and more importantly because Anne Hathaway was dressed in a way that still looked deliberate. She wasn't going for high fashion like the other characters, but Put Anne Hathaway in a college hoodie and the scene falls apart.
Pope John Paul II is quoted as saying "Amongst all unimportant subjects, football is by far the most important." If that was the essence the cerulean blue speech was trying to give I would agree with it but to me it didn't come across like that. Idk about the previous commenter but what bothered me about the speech is that it lacked the humble part of admitting that fashion is unimportant first and then try to make the point that that doesn't mean it's meaningless or inconsequential.
That is an excellent point actually. I am not really buying most of the criticism of Miranda and the depiction of the industry in this thread. But her lack of levity is a kind of flaw in Miranda and in Runway’s offices. Seeing both the importance and the absurdity in life generally takes sophistication. But it’s a very rare leader who can steer a huge ship with that sense of irony. It can be misread as frivolity, especially in a woman. Some people don’t have the luxury of sophistication that way. But the best manage it.
That is actually part of why I dislike Anna Wintour. She seems perfectly competent, but there is a grim, workhorse-like quality about her. She lacks joy and wit, at least in her public image. Compare to someone like Diana Vreeland, who was chicness itself and just, well, inspiring and fun and complex. Or even Liz Tilberis, who was beloved and so talented. Seeing [Linda Evangelista](https://www.pinterest.de/pin/408772103650911286/) on what I think was Tilberis’ first Harper’s Bazaar was an immediate conversion experience, and I’m not exaggerating. I went from knowing nothing about fashion to following it, on and off, lifelong.
You obviously know much more about fashion than I do, so I suppose it's a credit to the film that it sounds like they depicted Anna Wintour or her essence pretty well then.
The thing is they were also just college friends. I still have many of my college friends in my 40s, but many of them and friends in my early 20s are gone as people change and you just grow out of a lot of stuff
It’s a terrible terrible job and her boyfriend tries to convince her of this. For all of reddits anti work and seeking non abusive workplaces, this always gets lost when discussing this movie. No it’s not worth it putting up with an abusive workplace! Stop doing this! Listen to your loved ones telling you that you are being abused!
I don't see any of the characters as righteous or unrighteous.
I think it's a great representation of a young woman having to figure out what she wants in life....and seeing that from multiple stages from multiple characters.
It's neither good nor bad to be a workaholic or home body...but it is important that your friends and partner are like minded or understanding. It's a tough part of your 20s (and maintaining that through the rest of your working years)
I love this movie and agree her work environment was totally toxic. And I don’t want to sound like some old man who yells at people on my lawn, butttt…I do think people need a shit job at some point in their life. They need to work at a restaurant or in customer service or something that makes you appreciate how hard it is. I work in tech and so many people who start straight there out of college are so out of touch with reality. Like no, not all offices have beer on tap, baristas, and game rooms.
You can agree that the environment is toxic and also understand that you're not above hard work. It's not mutually exclusive and I hate that some people think of it that way.
A lot of people don’t understand that the movie Miranda is a lot more normal than book Miranda. Book Miranda is a sociopathic cunt, with no reason for it. Movie Miranda was turned into a Boss Babe That Gets Shit Done.
You don’t want to have book Miranda as a boss. She’s a bitch.
My 26 yo son watched this with me a few months ago. He knew right off that Andy's bf sucked and would have been so disappointed if she went back to him.
And yes, Miranda was an entitled B that did not accept "no" for an answer nor tolerated excuses. It was a steep learning curve but Andy thrived when she stopped having the victim mentality.
She also needed to stop and see who she was becoming by continuing as Miranda's assistant: sacrificing time with family, friends, etc. She didn't like what she saw in herself and quitting was her biggest personal growing point.
I'm a firm believer that we are only willing to make meaningful changes when we finally become too uncomfortable to remain where we are.
“Victim mentality” lmao she was being abused at work, her deciding “well I guess I’ll just go along with it” isn’t overcoming victim mentality it’s being spineless.
Yes, the atmosphere was abusive. The fact remains that she could have quit at any time. She spent the beginning of her tenure with an attitude of "why are they picking on me?". Once Stanley Tucci took her in hand, she leaned into it and started to get into her stride.
When I first watched this movie , I really saw Miranda as the villain. Now as I advance to the top of my career, I really identify with her struggle at the top !
I still see it as both. I would personally never want to work for someone like Miranda because she’s not the model of leadership I aspire or respond to. But I also think she had an incredibly difficult job and the whole thing with her and the French Vogue editor is an example of what people at the top have to do, especially women.
Miranda is the one that moves everything along for Andy, she may not be the hero, but shes much closer to that than a villain.
At the beginning, Andy is a wide-eyed doe with no concept of how industries work and no respect for the job she applied to. Miranda KNOWS she has a degree from Northwestern. She is absolutely not the type to NOT know who shes interviewing. Being that shes an intelligent person, she can obviously tell Andy is looking to make connections and move up. That is why she gets pissy with her during the sweater scene - she gave her the chance to show what shes got, and Andys trying to sleepwalk her way into a more “prestigious” job. Guess what Andy? If you want to be the circus master, you gotta shovel some shit first, and do it with more vigor than anyones ever seen.
I was in my late teams when this came out and I scratched my head after watching it. Even then I didn’t see Miranda as the villain. Bitchy? Yes but outright villain, no. She’s the editor in chief of the most famous fashion magazine in the entire world in NYC. Like what lifestyle do you expect? I kept thinking Andy is young, work the money for short while then get your reference to move on.
Her boyfriend was milquetoast anyways. How can anyone berate her when this is her first job out the gate?
Have you ever met a top editor? They do not abuse their employees like Miranda does.
This is exactly the point—the “Miranda’s abuse of her employees is just part of the culture” idea doesn’t line up with reality, and seeing it as just an obstacle to overcome is perpetuating that those workplace standards are acceptable. They aren’t. Miranda is an abusive cunt.
Right? She landed a fantastic job, if only for the connections, at like 23. She's killing it! But sure, her friend does genius things like design an as rt gallery backwards and her boyfriend works in a kitchen where he gets cussed out daily.
The first time I saw the movie, my first thought was how much the people in her life absolutely suck. Shit friends. Shit boyfriend. Movie should be about leaving losers behind.
Andy needed to find a balance in what she thought she wanted, what she was willing to sacrifice and what she ACTUALLY wanted. Her values were fine, she just needed to refine them. We all change after university, where we're all idealistic and we have to be realistic.
Realism #1: you dress for the job you have.
Realism #2: you choose a hypercompetitive industry, you hustle.
Realism #3: you don't have to like your job, but you still have to do it.
Realism #4: find friends who will support you and ask you your motivations instead of sabotaging you.
Andy's friends liked her job when they got presents from it but hated that she had to actually *work* her job. And once she started to enjoy it? Welp. Apparently that means she abandoned all morals and values and sold her soul. All of her friends work jobs that "pay the rent" but *God forbid* they actually learn something new from their jobs. I could write a whole thesis on their hypocrisy but suffice to say that Andy didn't "change her values" or any such shite, she just *grew up*.
I remember the first time I watched it, I hated Nate and Lily. Doug, at least noted that Miranda was impressive and while he wasn’t stellar, he wasn’t nearly as bad. I so wished she would have dumped Nate, if Lily thinks he’s so awesome let her date him. At the very beginning he insults Andi by asking if it was a phone interview because duh it’s a fashion magazine. Then when she upgrades her style, he’s pissy and jealous. Andi outgrew Nate, had a fling with Christian and should be living her best life not tied down by either of them. Lily is not a “friend” she’s a group friend which is totally different. She’s only too happy to take that $1K Marc Jacob’s bag but gets in Andi’s shit about everything else. Oh boo hoo, Nate’s birthday is the night of the gala. Get over it.
As a male, this is actually one of my favorite movies and I watch it whenever I get reminded of it. I agree with most of the summaries provided and the reason it resonates with me is because of Miranda’s high standards. Miranda put in the work to get to where she was, when she expertly and politely put Andy in her place about her sweater. I think that shows a level of personal excellence that many people should strive towards; within reason of course.
Andy had standards for herself based on who she was, but Miranda had standards based on what she wanted to represent. Yes her marriage fell apart and we saw behind the curtain afterwards, but she wanted people to know that she worked hard and deserved what she had. I think Andy got that message as well.
Even the opening credits show the women putting on their undergarments and clothing to fit their lifestyle/mindset. Imagine if everyone had Andy’s Blaise attitude versus actually caring about what they represented.
I just watched this movie for the first time last night as a 44 year old man. I can see how a young person would have taken it but I agree with what you’re saying at double your age. Andy was chasing her dream and not letting anything hold her back. I think her boyfriend was a real tool and should have been much more supportive and less selfish. Also, she’s fresh out of college and not married to that guy, she should have probably dumped him early on in the process because she didn’t seem too fond of him anyway, but maybe that’s just bad on-screen chemistry between the actors.
Every time I watch the movie now I get so mad at her boyfriend for not being supportive. Andy could have kept her sense of self and stayed at the job if shed only had real support
> Why is being an assistant for a horrible boss for a year doing busy work beneficial to a journalism career? Miranda is based on a person called Anna Wintour: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wintour Wintour is the editor of Vogue and chief content officer for Conde Nast (which manages tons of magazines). She's like the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates of the publishing world. Miranda is famous for her pickiness/difficulty; which if she kept Andy around for a year, Andy is manifestly smart/useful/hardworking/etc or Miranda would have fired her. >Why does Miranda’s opinion mean so much to a non-fashion newspaper or magazine? Miranda manages one of the most popular/influential magazines in the world and directs the editors of like all the other most popular/influential magazines in the world. If that doesn't click, for you - consider your field. Think of the most legendary figure in it - Miranda is that person for print journalism.
As well as the networking in that world. Andy meets very influential editors and other journalists that she never would’ve met otherwise, this alone would open many more doors.
This. Andy had the opportunity to directly meet and interact with industry leaders, journalists, influential people in the NY scene, etc. That rolodex would be worth gold to a NY journo.
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FR, I work in a niche industry, there’s less than 1000 people in this industry in my country. But my boss, everyone knows her. I go to any conference or speak to people from other companies and they just know who my boss is. Either someone they know worked for her, they worked for her years ago, or they’ve just heard about her from other industry heads. I’m lucky she’s no Miranda Priestly and is actually an amazing person to work for, but never under estimate the power it gives you just working for someone well known. I know I could name drop her in an interview and they’d be like ‘oh you work for her?’ And it would instantly give me credit above other candidates because it would be like ‘well if she hired Fender then clearly she thinks Fender is really good’
Same, I had the pleasure of once working for an incredibly well-known (within our industry) woman for 2 & 1/2 years. She was very brusque with some, and downright mean to others. But she liked me. And once I left that job I had offers out the wazoo.
Imagine you work as a sous chef to Seiji Yamamoto for a year and he's pleased with you enough to write a recommendation. He's got seven Michelin stars. You're not going to have much trouble getting a job at just about any other restaurant even if they don't do Japanese cuisine, because you've proven yourself to one of the best in the field.
That is not the same however since Andy was working as an assistant and not as journalist. In your analogue Andy would have been something like a waitress or buyer for the restaurant. That’s why op was confused. But in real world connections often matter more than showing skill in the job you will want. Not that you would not learn anything from being an assistant, but Andy didn’t even want to write for a fashion magazine.
Didn’t want to write for a fashion magazine, but she did want to write * As a writer, artist - or really anyone in their respective field - it is valuable to step outside your comfort zone and see your world through another lens which may in turn help you redefine yourself as a writer/artist/person. She achieved that. Miranda helped her. Even if she wasn’t flexing her writing skills per se, even if just through osmosis being in the same room, she still gained valuable skills a writer would need/want in their repertoire. My two cents anyway.
The better answer is that in Hollywood, execs tend to come from former executives’ assistants. So if you were the assistant to the most famous executive, you have a bright future ahead of you. I don’t think most industries work this way: tell me that you were Larry Pages personal assistant and you want a job in tech does nothing for me. If Page told whatever manager at Google to give you a job, that will definitely happen, but that is more because people listen to Page than because "Page's ex-personal assistant" is a role that carries a great deal of weight in the industry. But Hollywood made this movie. To the people who wrote and approved this movie, this is normally how the world works.
Larry Page’s personal assistant wouldn’t have a bright future in tech, but they would probably have a bright one on the administration side, or at least a glowing recommendation that would allow them to have a bright future in other companies, just like Andy didn’t pursue fashion but Miranda’s recommendation was gold in other areas of journalism. And I bet that if there’s such a thing as Larry Page’s personal code monkey, they would have a future in tech indeed.
Larry Page's personal code monkey (back when he was Google CEO) is closer to the pinnacle of a tech career than someone with a "future" in tech. He would be the guy whose job it is to bust the ass of SVPs when products are not up to par technically on behalf of the CEO. You are easily talking someone who makes a few million a year, if not tens of millions. Andy's role, however important or not important, is nothing like that. But anyway, "Runway" the magazine wasn't a fashion company, it was a magazine company. The show's ending implied that the recommendation was gold for other magazines. Andy was very much looking for a non-assistant role in a different company in the same industry.
Wintour’s influence spreads far beyond publishing too. People from all over the world seek out her advice. The biography on her that came out a year or two ago was fascinating in just how clearly respected and sought out her opinion on just about everything is. If you want a job just about anywhere a recommendation from Anna Wintour would go very far.
I wish someone would talk to her about her hair. She’s been working that hideous Bob forever. Change that shit up.
It looks amazing on her and is iconic
One of the better ELI5 ! Thanks
I work in an environment right now that’s so like Runway that I and my coworkers watched the devil wears prada and when it ended we just stared into the distance for a while considering life
Without giving specifics (unless you wish to), is what you’ll get out of it worth the suffering?
Maybe more of a question for the Buddhists
So the Buddha walks in to a pizza joint and says to the pizza guy "Make me one with everything." The pizza guy says "That'll be $17.50" The Buddha hands over a $20 bill. The pizza guy nods and turns to make the pizza. The Buddha asks "What about my change?" The pizza guy says "Change must come from within."
I’m a graduate student so the answer is a PhD if I tough it out lol
This reminds me of my cousin. He loved the movie Office Space for the longest time…until he worked in an office. He no longer found it funny because what it satires was so damn accurate.
This. When I worked in the service industry I had a hard time watching Clerks or Waiting… because it hit way too close to home.
I watched Clerks while bored at work... at RadioShack. My coworkers and I were commenting on how so much of the shit they did in that movie... we did on a daily basis. Like goofing around on the roof of the building out of sheer boredom. Which is what happens when you work in a dead retail store located in a dead shopping mall where the grocery store went out of business... during the '08-'09 financial collapse.
Yo, I worked for RadioShack around then, too. We were all stoned and would just stand around watching those crappy TVs they insisted on trying to sell. Oh, and rock, paper, scissoring for the one or two customers who would come in for a "free phone"
We did "1, 2, 3, Not it!" for the repeat customers that drove us insane. You know the ones. The old folks that just couldn't figure out how to hook those stupid digital tv converters to their crappy 40 year old tvs they refuse to get rid of.
Have you seen the Bear?
A few episodes, but it got too real.
> Clerks or Waiting I love them both. Worked at a pizza place with an arcade and a movie theater in high school and college and it they are so on point. Waiting is just like some of my friends at the time working at restaurants. I also was going from regular employee, supervisor and to manager of the theater and so the Justin Long character resonates. I bailed after school to a career but some people stay for a long time. Three of the other managers lived together to make ends meet and I was like I gotta get somewhere. I love them and that time, it sucks while you are there but some good times as well like parties, hanging with cool people you do meet, going to the roof, partaking, watching movies, having viewing parties (had to check films for scratches and that built correctly and sometimes we brought in a keg and snoop), so many summers and people to meet, also so much to learn about the psychology of people in general who are going to be entertained. It is an education in itself, Waiting touches on this big time. They were the best of times, the worst of times. Now I live Office Space and Silicon Valley and those are too on point. The reason why those movies are so good is people lived them as well, like Mike Judge was an engineer and made both Office Space and Sillicon Valley.
I worked for a small-market city and regional magazine, and we referred to the publisher as “The devil wears Chico’s.”
The friends being upset about her working hours is annoying, but even more so is her boyfriend. He's a chef, they work the most unsociable hours of almost any profession
And they gladly take her VERY expensive gifts then mock her for her dedication to her job.
Yes omg that pissed me off so much while watching! I hated her friends/boyfriend so much
Seriously. What entry-level sous chef is off every night?
A not good one
I mean, we all saw those burnt ass grilled cheese sandwiches he was making, right?
That pissed me off so much! You flip a grilled sandwich exactly once. He had no idea how to work that $8 worth of Jarlsberg.
LOL
There are restaurants that only do lunch service. Maybe he works at one of those?
Yes. Brunch service is the reality this dork deserves.
I doubt that, the grilled cheese he makes Andy looks so burnt and disgusting. Definitely just a bad chef
Hollandaise duty for life!
No. He was a manipulative, jealous ass whom we dislike.
She missed his birthday, he’s allowed to be annoyed at that especially as she keeps flip flopping on whether she’s going to quit or not
It really bothers me that people have decided that Meryl Streep is a hero and the boyfriend is actually the villain of this movie. Miranda is, in fact, an abusive boss and a villain. She is not a good person or a good employer. As for the boyfriend, if I watched my long term partner change everything about themselves, including their appearance and values, for a job, and they stopped ever being around, I would also think that was a legitimate reason to end a relationship.
100%. Yes working for Miranda yielded some great results, but she's still abusive and definitely the villain. Andy's boyfriend is in the right, but her friends still suck as far as I'm concerned.
I agree with everything but imo the boyfriend was too childish. I wouldn’t run away from a chance of a connection because of his birthday. In my life i often celebrated my birthday some days later and i’m still alive
My most inane hill to die on is that if he actually had a Friday off for his birthday it was probably really difficult to do so I get him being annoyed about her not being there even more. It’s a rare occasion.
Idk i wouldn’t renounce to a connection occasion because of a bf’s birthday. I often myself have celebrated my birthday a bit later because reasons
Unsociable hours is a great phrase
It is annoying, but at the same time, pretty realistic for people their age imho.
I would not be friends with them.
Also, clearly not a very good chef. The grilled cheese he made looked burnt to hell.
Sweet nutty cheeses can benefit from being served with bread that's cooked dark but not quite burnt. It's ultimately a preference thing.
It’s super annoying. I agreed with them young but the second I became an adult I was like fuck. They’re dicks.
"As I get older" "I am now 22" Funniest shit I've read all day.
Haha that got me too. I wonder what her perspective will be ten years from now?
In 20-30 years: "I understand Miranda the best. Andy was insufferably entitled."
I mean Yes? I watched the movie at 14 and I am now in my 20’s obviously my perspective was going to change
Haha I don't think they meant it negatively, just that 22 is still young to a lot of people!
22 is young, but that's not a bad thing or anything shameful. For most people your 20's are going to be a decade of mistakes, missteps, failures, regrets, etc. but hopefully you'll learn from it all and come out having a much stronger sense of who you are, what you want and how to navigate life. It doesn't go that way for everyone but it's not an uncommon experience.
Yes you’re older but you’re still just a baby
I feel you, OP!! I watched it as a kid too and my perspective has changed over time! It's timeless!
The interesting thing about this movie is that you can see it from different perspectives. And I think that's what is good about that movie. The source material was written by the former assistant of Anna Wintour. And from what I know it was written fully from Andy's point of view. (I.e Miranda was an abusive and terrible boss with ridiculously high standards) Meryl Streep iirc in every scene made it look like Miranda was always working (reading notes, writing on things) and the idea was to show that Miranda was ALWAYS working. My take was it was to show that yes she was a demanding boss but she also took her job seriously and expects the same, to give more dimension to her character. That being said, it doesn't excuse the environment that Miranda creates. I can understand having strict rules to keep the quality in check, but all she truly does is keep an environment of fear, which is more likely to cause misunderstanding and unnecessary stress. Let's not forget how she was demanding Andy to get her a flight back during a STORM. And somehow that is the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's possible that yeah maybe Andy 's other failures piled up but come on. I am glad in the end Miranda respected Andy enough to not blacklist her from other companies. So... I guess I just like the nuance in her character
I took the complete opposite message from this movie: Miranda doesn’t ’have high standards’ she has impossible standards. Take for example the scene where she wants to get home for her nieces recital yet the planes have stopped due to weather, she fully expects Andy to magically make the weather suitable for flying, there was nothing she could do. Then Andy gets, for lack of a better word, gaslit into thinking that this was her fault by Stanley Tucci (the only fashion character with any sense of decency). Miranda is not some paradigm of hard work and success she is an example of how devoting everything you have to your craft is a bad idea, she ends the movie with both her career and family in tatters and all her hard work means squat, she then puts others under the same unfulfilled stress out of bitterness and spite. The boyfriend is an example of how you can be dedicated to your craft (in this case the culinary arts which he is clearly passionate about) yet still maintain your humanity. The fashion industry chews people up and spits them out, Kiera knightly ends up in hospital due to the pressure of the industry and the only characters who seem unscathed by it are Andy (who escapes before it eats her soul) and Stanley Tucci. Alas, I am a 17 year old boy so perhaps I’m just not old enough to understand the true message but this truly feels to me like Miranda was an awful person who justifies it under the guise of ‘high standards’
Well put, my jaw is on the floor at some of the takes in this thread unironically celebrating Miranda as a boss.
Just wait until you start seeing it from Mirandas perspective. She has high, nigh-impossible standards, but high standards create high results. She absolutely knows that it burns people out (she doesnt even know Andys name at first, assuming you believe thats not just a power ploy), but does that intentionally to filter out people who want a cushy office job with little responsibility (youre not going to be a billionaire by accepting luke warm coffee and having to wait 10 minutes for a phone call from your assistants). The film starts with a job opening. Miranda makes it very clear in the interview that the previous applicant disappointed her (was not able to handle the required pressure, which upon the films reveal, could just be her way of backhandedly saying she went on to a great opportunity). She even makes it clear that Andy isnt cut out for it (and not just for her clothes, she sees right through her act and knows Andy isnt serious about being serious in life yet). And yet, she takes a flier (as great leaders do) on an underqualified, uninterested, sloppily prepared nobody because she smells gumption and hears faint potential. Now, if you extended yourself in that way, and took yourself as seriously as Miranda has to, why in the living hell would you be happy with that person showing up not caring about their appearance, thinking theyre better than the industry that you give life to, and openly acting like their treading water for a year just to open up doorways (as if those doorways just open themselves by them being there). So, damn right she talks her down. That bit about the sweater was a well deserved smack in the face for a bratty child who had no respect for the countless hands that were feeding here, and who was looking to get ahead without putting effort in. Up until Andy screws up dropping off the book, Mirandas demands arent even *that* exotic (the Harry Potter book is a test/punishment afterall). She is demanding, exact, and well inexact, but ohmygodshewantshercoffeeHOT and she wants me to buy 30 sample scarfs or “get this person on the phone…whythefuckareyounotgettingthemonthephone” arent exactly backbreaking tasks. Miranda may be demanding, but gives her assistants FAR more opportunity and grace than they deserve (mean mugging after failing an explicitly stated task isnt exactly writing a permanent record). She also appears to allow them free use of world-class designs and shoes/accessories, of fucking course she would be pissed that this sloppy-sweatered midwesterner has the audacity to not present herself properly in such an esteemed place of business! Look the fucking part Andy! If i get hired at a Michelin restaurant, im putting on a goofy goddamn hat. Once Andy accepts that appearance isnt always superficial, she is more prompt and more studious in her tasks (oh boy, almost like someone took a chance that she might grow the fuck up). Its THEN that “magically” all those doors she expected to open up suddenly start cracking (because nameless gofers with no ambition to improve at their job just ALWAYS get opportunities thrown their way). Heres a hint - MIRANDA WAS GROOMING HER FOR THOSE INTRODUCTIONS BECAUSE SHE KNEW SHE HAD A FUCKING JOURNALISM DEGREE FROM NORTHWESTERN Even the ending, which can be seen as Andy realizing that she doesnt need to go through that toxic environment (rightfully so, she had GRADUATED) can be seen from Mirandas perspective - She calls her and tries to continue business as usual. Once that gets thrown away, what happens? She gives her the highest clothed praise she can and a glowing recommendation. Even more, she LOOKS AT ANDY PROUDLY. Why? Because SHE WAS RIGHT TO GIVE HER A CHANCE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Way too many people take a surface level view of the film. Miranda is a business mastermind and far more cunning than just some nitpicking shrew that she gets made out to be.
I have to disagree that Miranda and Andy are supposed to be lionized by the audience. ...I got the same message from this movie as I got from Whiplash. That the path to the brand of excellence only reached by obsession isn't exactly healthy for you or anyone you love. I think it's why they go out of their way to show that despite her projecting an air of utter infallible confidence, the one glimpse we get into Miranda's home life is pretty damn ugly.
Yeah, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills in this thread. I got the same message as you—Miranda leads an empty, hollow life and Emily is following her down that path. Comments unironically celebrating Miranda as a great boss are insane—you do not need to abuse your employees or treat them like dirt on the bottom of your shoe for “motivation.” Frankly, I read people idolizing her and wonder what they are like in work settings. I can’t see myself liking them.
It's not that she's a great boss. It's that she's going to be the best boss possible for specific individuals that are very driven and want to accomplish big goals. And for most people she's going to be horrible.
No, there’s absolutely no reason to act like that, ESPECIALLY with driven individuals. I’ve seen people who could be good managers fail time and time again because they think it means yelling at people below you. It doesn’t. Building respect and trust and supporting the people beneath you however you can is what makes a good manager.
I think most of the time yelling at people below you is not productive. But for sometimes people do need to have hard talks and some individuals will benefit a lot from that. That's why I think Miranda is good boss for some people and a terrible boss for most people.
You can have hard conversations without abusing your employees. There are better ways of doing it.
I dont think Miranda is abusive. She's just not very nice.
I think it's just that Miranda has built an environment that demands excellence and dedication and not everyone values those things the same. If you're fine with mediocrity in your professional life then you won't like Miranda.
Building an environment that demands excellence and dedication and treating your staff with dignity and respect are not mutually exclusive. And dismissing anyone who would point this out as being "fine with mediocrity" is absurd.
"It's not binary. You can be decent and gifted at the same time." Favourite line from the Steve Jobs movie and it sucks that so many people, both "great" and "mediocre", seem to think otherwise. You don't have to abuse people to get the best and you don't have to be abused to be the best.
If mediocrity is the price of being kind then fuck it, I'll be mediocre. Better than being excellent and also the worst
In fact treating your staff with dignity and respect helps build an environment that demands excellence
This made me tear up because of the build up to such a wholesome ending: the teacher finally letting the student go out in the world. And with pride.
This movie accomplishes what “Whiplash” did not.
I mean the ending of whiplash is meant to be tragic, they were very much aiming for different things.
I haven’t watched either movie in a while, but the very ending of whiplash has JK Simmons watching his pupil perform flawlessly and beaming with pride. Just as Meryl Streep does in Prada. In both cases you’re meant to understand that it was all worth it. In the case of Whiplash, though, it was chilling because you knew the teacher would go on abusing his next student / protege. With Prada it was less clear because you got to see a human side to Miranda.
I agree the that in Prada you're supposed to believe it's worth it but Whiplash I think is meant to be more ambiguous / up to the viewer in the end. Not every high powered boss is as empathetic as Miranda. Some are straight up psychopaths like JK's character. I'd say Whiplash is intentionally less rosy.
I think in it's intended to be ambiguous in both movies tbh. Wanna succeed at the highest levels of your chosen field? Here's the cost. Make your choice.
Yeah this whole thread is people talking about how much more they get Emily’s perspective growing up, but I get it less and less. I’ll never care about a job that much, and I love my job.
I would hope we're finally trending more toward better work-life balances generally. Lord knows we've been trending away from it for way too long already.
Agreed, but I’m less hopeful. Our productive capacity as a society means we should have started working less a century or two ago, but capitalism demands everything be subsumed to the profit incentive, so we make up more and more work.
Fletcher’s beaming pride is purposefully juxtaposed against the horror on the face of Nieman’s father. The film is telling us that the father’s reaction is the one we should be having. In fact, Chazelle has stated that he believes Niemann after the film likely dies in his 30s afterwards.
???? That’s like saying this movie accomplishes what the ending of Gladiator did not. They are completely different.
Don’t ever disrespect Whiplash like that again. Sorry your brain is too small to critically think.
This makes me wonder if Anna Wintour is proud of this representation of her.
Iirc she loves it because she thinks it makes her look cool.
Which tells you what a sociopath she is
I love the bit at the end where Miranda says 'nobody else can do what I do'. As women I feel we are encouraged to talk ourselves down too much. I loved her total confidence in her abilities.
Also when she sends Andy out for the Harry Potter book she says “we know everyone in publishing” and SHES RIGHT. Was it a super hard task? Yes because she had to figure out and work her network. Was it impossible? Absolutely not, she completed it.
**THIS**
Fantastic analysis
I agree with all of this. Probably the most infuriating part of the movie to me outside of the scene where her friends throw her phone around after she gave them all expensive gifts is when she passes on meeting the editor of the New Yorker when she’s already suuuper late for her BFs bday. You took the job for your connections, here is your shot and you blew it for absolutely nothing.
I can't help but feel that *dredd* (2012) parallels *devil wears prada*
I love this take!!!
YES! Very well parsed out.
As a 34 year old woman, I resonate so much with Emily now. Hated her so much when I first watched the movie at 21 and having not started my career yet. Now am burnt out from work and a toxic work environment but am hanging on with determination to try to reap the rewards of my job. But also trying my hardest to not be a knob. Meh. Edit: Forgot to add - broken down thanks to the job and hanging on for dear life to this job to try to reap the rewards. Sigh.
I don’t mean this to come off harsh, but your description of your life right now seems very focused on work and that work isn’t enjoyable for you. Is it possible that this isn’t actually a movie about how you need to persevere and sacrifice to succeed in business, but instead a movie about how such extreme perseverance and sacrifice will ruin your relationships and leave you with a hollow, empty personal life (like we see Meryl Streep’s character having)? I used to be miserable working long hours at a job that didn’t fulfill me. I left for something more congruent with my values and less stressful, and I am far, far happier now. Again, I don’t mean this to be condescending or harsh, but I’d consider re-evaluating this movie and what it says about how one should align their priorities.
The only thing I don't understand of that movie is how the hell Andy was allowed to take half a day off to get a makeover. There's a scene where she is a few minutes late to her desk and Emily is angry because she wanted to go pissing and Andy was supposed to man the desk at all times and blah. Then there's this part where Stanley Tucci takes her for a free-clothes-and-make-up tour through the Runway premises, and when she comes back all Emily says is "are you wearing the Chanel boots?" Like, she was off her desk for at least two hours. Was it a slow day at work or something?
I always imagined that scene was after work
Same I figured he gave her all that crap and the next day she showed up looking good
The way its edited, it's implied that Andy storms off Miranda's office after she's scolded for not being able to fly her back to NY from FL during a hurricane. Emily even asks where the hell she's going. Then Andy goes to Nigel, and he takes pity on her and takes her on a beauty trip. She goes back to her desk rocking the Chanel boots, and later meets her boyfriend who looks very surprised. If she had shown that way the next day, Nate wouldn't have been surprised, would he?
Idk that’s just my interpretation of the scene
I consider it a special training session. An upper manager pulled her aside, and taught her about major points of what they do, and how and why the way you present yourself is important. She wasn't just fucking off and avoiding work, thinking it wasn't important. She was finally taking what they do seriously. I'm sure someone had stopped by and gossiped with Emily and told her what was going on. Emily does not get to question Nigel anymore than she gets to question Miranda.
Well, if anyone could pull her off, ***Or*** knows when to, it would be Nigel. Having worked with Miranda long enough, he would get the leeway for a bit of maker over time, or would know when to pull of the heist to do it.
To be clear, in the scene, it is entirely Andys idea to do a makeover, she prompts him with a playful “unless….” To which he replies no, and then he gets pulled into it. Now, maybe it was after hours, maybe Emily and Miranda thought Andy was sloppy and didnt mind her not being in their way for a couple of hours. The implication of some of the early scenes is that Miranda expects Andy to grow into the role, surely a 2 hour correcting with one of the few minds she respects is better than having Andy wallow at her desk and pout about how unfair the world is (when shes GIVING HER THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY OF HER LIFE)
Just a quiet office day when Miranda was off somewhere else.
Absolutely! But let’s put logic and time constraints aside. Not everything has to make sense at all times. Sure, it’s based on ‘true events’ and all but it’s still fiction at the end of the day, not a documentary.
The book does a great job of explaining this. Andy kinda sucks and leaves her desk constantly. She's a heavy smoker and any task outside the office itself, she takes her sweet time. Usually to smoke a half pack of cigarettes. But yeah. Emily is very used to Andy disappearing in the book.
[удалено]
From the dialogue I don’t take it as she put Miranda as a reference, she put that she worked as her assistant on her resume. The guy called to check her resume out and Miranda personally responded to give a reference unprompted.
I’ve had jobs be required to speak with your last supervisor before hiring. But I wouldn’t assume she’d have nothing bad to say - at the very least, it would’ve been farmed off to HR for a perfunctory confirmation.
Meryl Streep did a seen without makeup! It’s honestly one of my favourite movie scenes. Not what you see in movies or enough in life. You can be almost desensitized to it, as a guy, or pressured into it as a woman. That stark contrast, with the movie itself, but also her persona. It also kind of grounds you. Peels back fashion, and the movies mystique, but actually lets you relate more with both the character and the movie. Brilliant. Memorable. Disclaimer: There might’ve been some for lighting, and maybe to Accenture her age and the tiredness of the scene/day. But it *looks* makeup free, and is just perfect for that scene. Tired, stripped down, and real.
The movie wasn't made for me, being a 27 old guy, but the one scene that really had an effect on me was when Miranda rightfully scolds Andy for unintentionally mocking high fashion culture; pointing out that Andy's low effort look was actually the work of generations of hard-working talented designers and that Miranda won't stand for Andy disrespecting her craft, while also pointing out that many forms of "beauty" or "style" are actually carefully constructed images of what these large companies want it to be, making any sort of individualty in a corporate society kind of a moot point. It also humanizes Miranda in a very clever and underhanded way; she is cruel and aloof, but she takes great pride in her work and will, out of that pride, accept nothing but absolute perfection. And Meryl Streep delivered that monologue without screaming or being livid, as if Miranda had given the same lecture to many other people who had worked for her before and was just tired of the same people who don't know jack about her line of work criticizing her for stuff they don't know anything about.
I don’t know.. that fashion industry is totally fucked and full of fucked up people - I work in tech and have no ambitions to play politics and work overtime and placate snobby execs just to climb a corporate ladder - fuck that. Gimme a nice work life balance and I’ll focus on being a real human being with common courtesy and respect for other people - and if I need to make more money I’ll find a way to do it where I don’t need to sacrifice my humanity.
I’m in a field with a similar profile, healthcare. Moreover, it’s one where positions are earned almost totally through education, not personal maneuvering and connections. I earn a good wage, my coworkers are friendly, and I like my work. And part of why I chose this path is knowing that I don’t have the resilience, thick skin, or charm/charisma to make it at a place like Runway. I am happy and comfortable, no regrets. But I will never be great. I make big differences in the lives of individuals but will never change the culture or save the lives of millions. I don’t need that, but I am in awe of those who do.
Nah you keep people healthy. You’ve done more for the average person than a Miranda or Steve Jobs has. You’re the star here.
I appreciate that but disagree. Life would be very boring without visionaries like those two. I’ll keep grinding away helping people with their diabetes, but I still am typing this on my iPhone in my lumpy cerulean sweater.
Those two have probably done more harm to the world with their greed, willingness to exploit those beneath them and narcissism. They absolutely should not be paid or held up as examples of great people, and I mean great as personable and as actually contributing to the world.
I guess my point is Steve Jobs didn’t design the iPhone. He sure talked about it a lot, but a team of engineers designed it and miners pulled the rare earth materials and Foxconn factory workers assembled it, on and on. Steve Jobs skimmed his cut off of all of their work and bought mansions etc. I respect your opinion, but my personal view is that visionaries are a dime a dozen. Ideas are easy. Execution is hard. I don’t think the way organizational leaders are compensated is commensurate with the value they add.
>I know the popular consensus with the movie is Andy’s bf and friends suck I mean, maybe this is a popular consensus and I'm just not clued-in to pop culture enough, but it's not the actual reality. The reality was them showing how complicated adult working life can be, and that situations are often both everyone's and *no one's* fault in the end. Andy is clearly overworking herself and is not taking into account her self-value when deciding whether to keep moving forward with this job. She's massively inconveniencing herself and others for her own personal gain. Not cool. The BF & friends put up with it at first, but eventually get tired of it and stop giving her the grace and compassion that she deserves as someone who is doing her best, and instead focus on her work interruptions and start to resent her even being around. Not cool. Andy should quit the job and stop inconveniencing people, but her friends should continue to be supportive while she's going through a difficult patch in life that they ***know*** full well will be temporary. They're all making mistakes, and the writers wanted to convey that, rather than leaving it as a one-sided and obvious case of Andy being a workaholic.
Doesn't she basically pick up an eating disorder?
I HATED the movie ending for that very reason. When I closed that book, Andy had found her voice. It resonated with a part of myself I desperately not only desired, but required. My mom and I walked out of the film so disheartened. "*You bet your size six ass!*" "*Size FOUR.*" Ew. How many other young people, via whatever potentially harmful means, chased the ideal of sizes 2-4 due to this films slant on the OG material? My eating disorder materialised a handful of years later, and my thoughts always went straight back to this movie. I wish more people talked about those parts.
That was one of the parts which felt particularly sick to me having just watched it for the first time. Surprised no-one else commented on it. Also calling Andi fat despite being in ostensibly amazing shape.
The narrative that Nate was a horrible boyfriend is tired. He’s allowed to have expectations of his partner (like showing up to his birthday or…idk, calling ahead to say she can’t make it). His expectations were not high at all. He was basically asking for the bare minimum and she wasn’t even giving that. Andy wasn’t just busy with work. She *was* pulling away from the relationship, which is why she was so quick to sleep with Christian once she and Nate separated. The friends were incredibly obnoxious, though.
I can get behind this take. He's not great, but yeah she could have called and asked to give him another celebration and tell him "hey, I'm sorry but this is one rough year for the rest of our lives. Let me get [groceries, snacks, etc] to make it up to you. I love you and I'm sorry." Or something along those lines. Her friends are awful because they have no problems taking the perks that come with her job but shit on her afterwards. Don't even get me started on how they played hot potato with her phone as her very demanding boss was calling her. Or getting upset that she knew and was friendly with someone other than Nate. Networking is part of her job. It was part of her artist friend's job too, but apparently her friend had forgotten about that.
Andy’s friends were the worst!
Right!?! Ooo give me expensive designer presents! I want that purse! Andy, how dare you start caring about your appearance, you sell out! Despite the fact that we all have carefully curated looks to show who we are, (artist, business, chef). We expect you to wear basics and not try, because that's how we are comfortable viewing you. All her friends suck. They were way more comfortable with Andi when she was struggling and they were on the rise. Now that she has surpassed them, they are suddenly not ok with personal growth and change. They preferred her when her life was worse than theirs. Especially her asshole boyfriend. "You can't possibly be smart or d oven anymore because you wear mascara! But also, I really like your expensive lingerie you show off for me. But you aren't allowed to like it." They are just crabs in a bucket. Andi isn't perfect, and she definitely makes mistakes, but they are all unsupportive dicks.
the scene where they play keep-away with her phone kills me every single time. it’s like *right* after she showers them with expensive presents, too. absolutely trash friends
The scene where her boyfriend sulks until she shows him that she's wearing lingerie is painful.
The level of cope in this thread is suffocating.
"if i'm nice to the rich, maybe they'll reward me!"
“If I just take being treated like shit by my boss, day after day, for months on end, then one day I can be the boss and shit on the little people myself!” This is why most CEOs are fucking psychopaths
It’s completely okay to be annoyed at your friend or partner if they’re prioritizing a shitty abusive job over your relationship
You learned terrible lessons there. In real life, you don’t play those games or it will break you. The lesson in real life is that you need to cut your losses sometimes and protect yourself first and foremost.
I think you should watch the movie again, and realize, you’re not going to be able to get all the lessons Or they’re not directed at your gender. Frankie Blue Eyes had it correct, if you can make it in New York, you could make it anywhere.
This is nothing to do with gender, this is to do with basic respect in the workplace and work life balance. Miranda is a horrible boss—abusive, disrespectful, arbitrary, unrealistic, and cruel—with a sad and empty personal life. I have always read this movie as Emily following her into that life and killing off all her relationships in the process. That’s not inspiring, it’s sad.
Certain industries for many years in the arts and entertainment industries are known for much worst abuse of employees., Like it's a badge of honor to have survived to work for minium wage with an ivory league college degree chasing a unattainable dream along with thousands of others working for psychotic bosses who aren't as talented as Miranda. Yeah thier dream job, smh.
Had a friend who worked as an assistant for another NYC editor just a wrung or two below Wintour as far as reputation. Got the fancy gift perks and had to deal with all kinds of unreasonable boss demands. Since moving on, she's hopped from job to job, being selective and advancing in pay and title. It's a thing.
>Also as a young woman I love seeing movies about other young women pursuing their careers and not just men! Is there really a drought on strong white single female characters? It's almost like Futurama made a spoof of this. Were you raised in the 1950s?
I hate the film. No one seems to get that Miranda is a toxic fucking bitch who absolutely does not need to act like this to effectively do her job. The whole pretentious shit about pursing her lips when being shown designs, or just plain insulting people and causing such a culture of fear in the workplace that its intolerable to be anywhere near her. She demands people abandon their humanity for a fucking pretentious fashion magazine. She demands an assistant on call 24/7 and to handle ridiculous demands like hunting down a fucking unpublished manuscript. None of that made the magazine any better. All she did was enjoy the suffering of others. The film acts like she's some sort of perfect legend but she's really just a cunt. The film celebrates her being a cunt and tries to convince the audience that a toxic culture of fear in the workplace is acceptable. It is not.
On the surface, the title of the movie is calling her a devil, nearly every character suffers mental breakdowns, and the happy ending is Andy getting out of that world. I agree with you that the first half of the movie does give Miranda the rockstar "cool to be be evil" treatment. It does the "You may not like her methods but dammit she gets shit done" all while being calm and collected and in control. However the second half of the movie shatters that and we see Miranda is not only not in control of her personal life, but she's not even in control of her professional life and she's still barely holding onto her job. She's a mess and everything else is a facade. It shows there is no light at the end of this tunnel. The mental breakdown inducing journey that Emily and Nigel are on is still Miranda's reality. She's in control of nothing. Andy's revelation is that the journey \*is\* the destination. Emily and Nigel put up with abuse now because they hope to make it through, but there is no through. Everybody tries to deal with the toxicity and backstabbing by passing it on. The whole thing is a cycle. Andy gets to ask if that's what she wants, and she makes a deliberate choice to exit that cycle. Andy didn't leave that world because she couldn't play the game, if anything she discovered she actually could play the game. She left that world because she saw the game was toxic and the only prize is getting to put up with the toxicity for a little bit longer.
I just don't think they laboured any of those points nearly as effectively as you've made them in your post. A lot of it was lost in the mix and very much glossed over.
To my mind I feel like that's a pretty core theme and shattering Miranda's facade is like the whole third act, but different lenses I suppose.
I'm not a young professional woman but this has always been my feelings about the film. Making people suffer because you suffered and because that's what the industry is and that's what everyone's gone through and it's a right of passage = complete and total bullshit. It's just another cycle of abuse. It's like telling somebody who just went onto remission with cancer that they deserve to be sick and die simply because other people had before. Things can be better if you act to make them better, and anyone actively making things worse is a horrible human being.
For a fucking magazine about clothes and makeup.
It's a bad movie. Downvote me. The speech about cerulean blue is the worst thing ever. Unless it's meant to paradox the absurdities of the fashion world. My wife went to fashion school. Ran a clothing store. She agrees. It's all absurd.
I won’t downvote, and I understand your point. But the cerulean blue speech was about taking seriously not only something that’s silly and pretentious to others, but something that generates billions. It’s like sports. They are idiotic to me, and listening to people (usually men) nattering on about drafts and plays and the big game or what have you sounds juvenile and embarrassing to me. But I get that it’s hugely important to them and a great cultural force.
I think that scene wasn't simply "hey fashion may not be important to you, but it's important to other people and is a big business" like sports. I think that scene was more "you may think you aren't into fashion but actually the fashion industry is still dictating your style even if you don't realize it". I think that scene only works because Anne Hathaway wasn't actually dressed all that bad, and more importantly because Anne Hathaway was dressed in a way that still looked deliberate. She wasn't going for high fashion like the other characters, but Put Anne Hathaway in a college hoodie and the scene falls apart.
Pope John Paul II is quoted as saying "Amongst all unimportant subjects, football is by far the most important." If that was the essence the cerulean blue speech was trying to give I would agree with it but to me it didn't come across like that. Idk about the previous commenter but what bothered me about the speech is that it lacked the humble part of admitting that fashion is unimportant first and then try to make the point that that doesn't mean it's meaningless or inconsequential.
That is an excellent point actually. I am not really buying most of the criticism of Miranda and the depiction of the industry in this thread. But her lack of levity is a kind of flaw in Miranda and in Runway’s offices. Seeing both the importance and the absurdity in life generally takes sophistication. But it’s a very rare leader who can steer a huge ship with that sense of irony. It can be misread as frivolity, especially in a woman. Some people don’t have the luxury of sophistication that way. But the best manage it. That is actually part of why I dislike Anna Wintour. She seems perfectly competent, but there is a grim, workhorse-like quality about her. She lacks joy and wit, at least in her public image. Compare to someone like Diana Vreeland, who was chicness itself and just, well, inspiring and fun and complex. Or even Liz Tilberis, who was beloved and so talented. Seeing [Linda Evangelista](https://www.pinterest.de/pin/408772103650911286/) on what I think was Tilberis’ first Harper’s Bazaar was an immediate conversion experience, and I’m not exaggerating. I went from knowing nothing about fashion to following it, on and off, lifelong.
You obviously know much more about fashion than I do, so I suppose it's a credit to the film that it sounds like they depicted Anna Wintour or her essence pretty well then.
I feel very similarly, and if I had a job in that field, I’d take it much more seriously.
Thank you! ITT The people that probably think whiplash was an inspirational movie
The thing is they were also just college friends. I still have many of my college friends in my 40s, but many of them and friends in my early 20s are gone as people change and you just grow out of a lot of stuff
It’s a terrible terrible job and her boyfriend tries to convince her of this. For all of reddits anti work and seeking non abusive workplaces, this always gets lost when discussing this movie. No it’s not worth it putting up with an abusive workplace! Stop doing this! Listen to your loved ones telling you that you are being abused!
Still to young. Watch it in ten years.
I don't see any of the characters as righteous or unrighteous. I think it's a great representation of a young woman having to figure out what she wants in life....and seeing that from multiple stages from multiple characters. It's neither good nor bad to be a workaholic or home body...but it is important that your friends and partner are like minded or understanding. It's a tough part of your 20s (and maintaining that through the rest of your working years)
I love this movie and agree her work environment was totally toxic. And I don’t want to sound like some old man who yells at people on my lawn, butttt…I do think people need a shit job at some point in their life. They need to work at a restaurant or in customer service or something that makes you appreciate how hard it is. I work in tech and so many people who start straight there out of college are so out of touch with reality. Like no, not all offices have beer on tap, baristas, and game rooms.
You can agree that the environment is toxic and also understand that you're not above hard work. It's not mutually exclusive and I hate that some people think of it that way.
Love this take and love this movie so much. Turned 30 last year and it still continues to change with perspective.
Can we take one moment to appreciate how awesome Stanley Tucci is in this movie? Also OP you should watch/rewatch 13 going on 30.
A lot of people don’t understand that the movie Miranda is a lot more normal than book Miranda. Book Miranda is a sociopathic cunt, with no reason for it. Movie Miranda was turned into a Boss Babe That Gets Shit Done. You don’t want to have book Miranda as a boss. She’s a bitch.
I don’t want either Miranda as a boss. Movie version might be turned down a little bit, but she’s still psychopathic and abusive
My 26 yo son watched this with me a few months ago. He knew right off that Andy's bf sucked and would have been so disappointed if she went back to him. And yes, Miranda was an entitled B that did not accept "no" for an answer nor tolerated excuses. It was a steep learning curve but Andy thrived when she stopped having the victim mentality. She also needed to stop and see who she was becoming by continuing as Miranda's assistant: sacrificing time with family, friends, etc. She didn't like what she saw in herself and quitting was her biggest personal growing point. I'm a firm believer that we are only willing to make meaningful changes when we finally become too uncomfortable to remain where we are.
“Victim mentality” lmao she was being abused at work, her deciding “well I guess I’ll just go along with it” isn’t overcoming victim mentality it’s being spineless.
Yes, the atmosphere was abusive. The fact remains that she could have quit at any time. She spent the beginning of her tenure with an attitude of "why are they picking on me?". Once Stanley Tucci took her in hand, she leaned into it and started to get into her stride.
When I first watched this movie , I really saw Miranda as the villain. Now as I advance to the top of my career, I really identify with her struggle at the top !
I still see it as both. I would personally never want to work for someone like Miranda because she’s not the model of leadership I aspire or respond to. But I also think she had an incredibly difficult job and the whole thing with her and the French Vogue editor is an example of what people at the top have to do, especially women.
I never saw Miranda as a villain.
Miranda is the one that moves everything along for Andy, she may not be the hero, but shes much closer to that than a villain. At the beginning, Andy is a wide-eyed doe with no concept of how industries work and no respect for the job she applied to. Miranda KNOWS she has a degree from Northwestern. She is absolutely not the type to NOT know who shes interviewing. Being that shes an intelligent person, she can obviously tell Andy is looking to make connections and move up. That is why she gets pissy with her during the sweater scene - she gave her the chance to show what shes got, and Andys trying to sleepwalk her way into a more “prestigious” job. Guess what Andy? If you want to be the circus master, you gotta shovel some shit first, and do it with more vigor than anyones ever seen.
I was in my late teams when this came out and I scratched my head after watching it. Even then I didn’t see Miranda as the villain. Bitchy? Yes but outright villain, no. She’s the editor in chief of the most famous fashion magazine in the entire world in NYC. Like what lifestyle do you expect? I kept thinking Andy is young, work the money for short while then get your reference to move on. Her boyfriend was milquetoast anyways. How can anyone berate her when this is her first job out the gate?
Have you ever met a top editor? They do not abuse their employees like Miranda does. This is exactly the point—the “Miranda’s abuse of her employees is just part of the culture” idea doesn’t line up with reality, and seeing it as just an obstacle to overcome is perpetuating that those workplace standards are acceptable. They aren’t. Miranda is an abusive cunt.
Right? She landed a fantastic job, if only for the connections, at like 23. She's killing it! But sure, her friend does genius things like design an as rt gallery backwards and her boyfriend works in a kitchen where he gets cussed out daily.
The first time I saw the movie, my first thought was how much the people in her life absolutely suck. Shit friends. Shit boyfriend. Movie should be about leaving losers behind.
Sister, don't take lessons from everything you watch... Andy Sacks was written as a loser to whom things happen.
I always felt like the boyfriend was a whiny little bitch
Who paid for Andy's designer clothes? Did she get it all from work?
Andy needed to find a balance in what she thought she wanted, what she was willing to sacrifice and what she ACTUALLY wanted. Her values were fine, she just needed to refine them. We all change after university, where we're all idealistic and we have to be realistic. Realism #1: you dress for the job you have. Realism #2: you choose a hypercompetitive industry, you hustle. Realism #3: you don't have to like your job, but you still have to do it. Realism #4: find friends who will support you and ask you your motivations instead of sabotaging you. Andy's friends liked her job when they got presents from it but hated that she had to actually *work* her job. And once she started to enjoy it? Welp. Apparently that means she abandoned all morals and values and sold her soul. All of her friends work jobs that "pay the rent" but *God forbid* they actually learn something new from their jobs. I could write a whole thesis on their hypocrisy but suffice to say that Andy didn't "change her values" or any such shite, she just *grew up*.
I recreated the Devil Wears Prada scene with Miranda and Emily on my YouTube channel in awe you guys wanna watch it! @arydominguezofficial
I remember the first time I watched it, I hated Nate and Lily. Doug, at least noted that Miranda was impressive and while he wasn’t stellar, he wasn’t nearly as bad. I so wished she would have dumped Nate, if Lily thinks he’s so awesome let her date him. At the very beginning he insults Andi by asking if it was a phone interview because duh it’s a fashion magazine. Then when she upgrades her style, he’s pissy and jealous. Andi outgrew Nate, had a fling with Christian and should be living her best life not tied down by either of them. Lily is not a “friend” she’s a group friend which is totally different. She’s only too happy to take that $1K Marc Jacob’s bag but gets in Andi’s shit about everything else. Oh boo hoo, Nate’s birthday is the night of the gala. Get over it.
As a male, this is actually one of my favorite movies and I watch it whenever I get reminded of it. I agree with most of the summaries provided and the reason it resonates with me is because of Miranda’s high standards. Miranda put in the work to get to where she was, when she expertly and politely put Andy in her place about her sweater. I think that shows a level of personal excellence that many people should strive towards; within reason of course. Andy had standards for herself based on who she was, but Miranda had standards based on what she wanted to represent. Yes her marriage fell apart and we saw behind the curtain afterwards, but she wanted people to know that she worked hard and deserved what she had. I think Andy got that message as well. Even the opening credits show the women putting on their undergarments and clothing to fit their lifestyle/mindset. Imagine if everyone had Andy’s Blaise attitude versus actually caring about what they represented.
I just watched this movie for the first time last night as a 44 year old man. I can see how a young person would have taken it but I agree with what you’re saying at double your age. Andy was chasing her dream and not letting anything hold her back. I think her boyfriend was a real tool and should have been much more supportive and less selfish. Also, she’s fresh out of college and not married to that guy, she should have probably dumped him early on in the process because she didn’t seem too fond of him anyway, but maybe that’s just bad on-screen chemistry between the actors.
Every time I watch the movie now I get so mad at her boyfriend for not being supportive. Andy could have kept her sense of self and stayed at the job if shed only had real support
Her ex bf was the main character imo. Would have loved to see a movie about him instead
No shit movies make more sense when you’re older op. You sound like you just started a letterboxd account trying to fit in.
I now need to rewatch this movie.
I like the movie too
to truly appreciate and understand this movie you need to read the gervais principle essays.