The Devil Wears Prada 2

Posted on April 30, 2026 at 5:06 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for strong language and some suggestive references
Profanity:	Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	None
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	May 1, 2026

Witty barbs, fabulous fashion, a touch of romance, some big name cameos and a sensational surprise appearance by a superstar singer — this sequel to the film that was foundational for a generation of millennials is worth the wait. There is a lot to love for those who are most familiar with the original (look for Andy’s cerulean blue sweater and a pair of near-identical belts) but returning screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna knows that the world has changed and her characters have, too.

In the original, based on the novel by former Vogue intern Lauren Weisberger, the fashion magazine plays an enormously influential role in a multibillion dollar industry. It’s not that Runway editor in Chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) can just get away with being legendarily imperious and laser-focused; she needs to be to do that job. Well, possibly she does not need to be quite so demanding, but as we saw when she acknowledged the reality of a second divorce in one of the first film’s key scenes, she has feelings and even moments of vulnerability.

Times have changed. When we last saw Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), she was the second assistant to Miranda, essentially getting coffee, dropping off the draft versions of the magazine at Miranda’s home, and hanging up her coat. She was also being terrorized by the first assistant, Emily (Emily Blunt) and getting some support from the magazine’s loyal photo editor, Nigel (Stanley Tucci).

In the opening scene of the new film, Andy and the newspaper she works for receive prestigious journalism awards just as the entire staff is fired and the publication shut down by its new owners, some sort of investor group that sees them only as a balance sheet liability. Where the first film was based on the then-reasonable assumption that journalism produced credible information that was widely respected, even a speciality publication like a fashion magazine, this one recognizes that people are as likely to get their information from social media as a newspaper and that as a result of the cacophony of information and re-alignment of advertising and other revenue sources, the providers have become siloed and shrill.

Runway, perhaps from the pressure to publish constantly, made an embarrassing mistake in an article about a fast fashion brand and is widely derided for it. (The memes online are very funny). The wealthy owner of Runway and other publications, Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman) wants to respond by bringing in someone with excellent credentials as a journalist. So he hires Andy as Runway’s features editor without asking or even notifying Miranda. Her first assignment is to accompany Miranda and Nigel to grovel before one of their biggest advertisers, Dior, now led by Emily. And Miranda says to her, “All I need to do is bide my time until you fail.”

Miranda’s diva behavior may be diminished in light of the altered status of the magazine and a complaint to HR that now has her hanging up her own coats. But she is still a Dowager Duchess-level purveyor of acid commentary and Streep, as always is never short of magnificent, clearly relishing the opportunity to make Miranda more complex and real. Blunt, whose appearance in the first film was a major breakthrough for her, also gets to do more with Emily. All three are spectacular.

The men in the lives of these women are Kenneth Branagh as Miranda’s violinist husband (supportive), Justin Theroux as Emily’s billionaire boyfriend (comically arrogant), and Pete (Patrick Brammall), a dashing new love interest for Andy. They are very much secondary characters and do very well with it. Also worth spotting: Pauline Chalamet as a Runway staffer, Lucy Liu as a sought-after cover story subject, and many real-world celebrities, especially at Miranda’s Hamptons party, including Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad,, Jenna Bush Hager, Naomi Campbell, Winnie Harlow, Donatella Versace, Molly Jong-Fast.

And the fashion! Wild and stunning. The glamor includes a fabulous fashion show in Milan in addition to the eye-popping ensembles of the stars. Watch for Streep’s amazing tassel jacket, which should inspire a lot of ransacking of thrift stores from DIY fashionistas.

The balance of fashion, fun, and character development keeps things moving and it’s thoughtful enough to have some meaning but light enough to be entertaining. A lot has changed in the worlds of fashion and journalism in two decades, but director David Frankel, screenwriter McKenna, and the powerhouse cast know what it takes to make a movie as irresistibly appealing as a classic little black dress.

Parents should know that this film has some strong language and some suggestive references. Characters drink alcohol.

Family discussion: What news sources do you like and why? What outfit in the movie was your favorite? Should Andy write the book?

If you like this, try: “The Devil Wears Prada” and a great documentary about Vogue, “The September Issue“

The Drama

Posted on April 2, 2026 at 3:31 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R
Profanity:	Constant very strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and drunkenness, heroin
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended discussion of school shootings, rifle, accident causes deafness
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	April 3, 2026

Love is the great human adventure but it is also the great human conundrum, which is why it drives us crazy. And also by there are so many stories, songs, paintings, novels, and theories about it. We all want it. And we are all terrified about being vulnerable enough to accept it, knowing we might come to depend on it and then lose it. And that presents itself in the core conflict. We want to be loved, which means being known. But if we allow ourselves to be known, we understand that we might scare off the very person we most want to love us. That is the precipice of intimacy that is very seldom . And that is the subject of “The Drama,” which has the courage to take on this conflict. It just doesn’t do a very good job. It’s non-stop cringe.

It’s also the kind of movie actors like to be in because it presents them with some very intriguing acting challenges, and if you can handle the cringe, you will appreciate the performances. They are as excellent as we would expect from four of the best young actors working today.

The movie begins with a close-up of a very pretty ear. It belongs to Emma (Zendaya), who is reading a novel in a coffee shop. She has an earbud in the other ear. Charlie (Robert Pattinson) wants to find a way to talk to her, so he quickly looks up her book on GoodReads so he can pretend he read it. She does not respond. He thinks he’s blown it. But she did not hear him. She is deaf in that other ear. She encourages him to try again. And she forgives him on their first date when he has to confess that he never read the book.

That’s a flashback. In the movie’s present time, it is just a couple of days before their wedding and they are working on the speeches they will make after the ceremony, explaining what they love most about each other. Charlie is getting some help from his best man, Mike (Mamoudou Athie). Everything seems all set for happily ever after.

But then, at a tasting dinner with Mike and his wife, Rachel (Alaina Haim), who is Emma’s maid of honor, they all get a little tipsy (“This isn’t a bar,” the caterer mutters), and everyone makes the first of a series of excruciatingly painful mistakes. They decide they should each tell the story of the worst thing they ever did. And Emma’s is so shocking to the other three that it shatters their understanding of their relationship. Charlie starts to panic. He pesters Emma with questions, not trying so much to understand as he is to find a way to feel better about making a lifetime commitment. There’s a certain amount of projectile vomiting. And some more mistakes that just make things worse.

Some viewers may think Charlie should be concerned about another of Emma’s actions, one happening in the present, more concerning than the one from her mid-teens she picked as her worst. She makes a decision based on questionable evidence and without regard for the consequences. But the script makes this seem more like a distraction than a central counterpoint to the theme.

As noted, the performances are outstanding. In one scene, just after the big reveal, the couple are posing for the wedding photographer and it is an acting class to watch the hesitations and performative re-enactments of their pre-reveal comfort with each other. Their scenes together have an electricity beyond what the script intends. Athie understands the subtlety of Mike’s internal struggle to make everyone to get along, Hailey Benton Gates gives a vivid but layered performance as Charlie’s colleague, who tries to find a way to respond to Charlie’s inappropriate hypothetical as a subordinate who socializes with him (she and her plus one are wedding guests).

There are some sharp moments in the script but it is not up to the level of the settings, the score by Daniel Pemberton, or the performances. There’s not enough substance and way too much cringe.

Parents should know that this movie includes very disturbing content and references to school shootings. Characters use strong and crude language, drink, and use drugs, there are sexual references and explicit situations,

Family discussion: What would you have done if you were Emma? If you were Charlie? What will happen next?

If you like this, try: “Bad Sabbath” and “The Trouble with Jessica”

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

Posted on March 26, 2026 at 5:40 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
Profanity:	Constant very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol and drug use
Violence/ Scariness:	Constant, intense, crime-violence, many graphic and disturbing images, guns, grenades
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	March 27, 2026

There’s a small genre of films I call “cheerfully nasty.” This is an ultra-violent story of hard-core featuring a time-traveling criminal who, between shoot-outs, has a serious conversation with his colleagues about whether Jess, Dean, or Logan is the best boyfriend for Rory. If you don’t know and appreciate that these are casual murderers who have all watched every episode of “The Gilmore Girls,” this may not be for you. But for the right audience, it is a hoot. It has a terrific cast, some delightfully deadpan dialogue, a bunch of great needle-drop songs, some surprising twists throughout, even a post-credit scene with one more.

It opens with Billy Joel’s “Why Should I Worry?” from the 1988 animated film “Oliver & Company” perhaps a nod to another movie with an ampersand in the tile. Symon (Ben Schwartz), a nerdy-looking guy in a garage filled with tech equipment is bopping along as he is doing something techy. Then someone shows up and shoots him. We will find out what been cooking up in that lab and we will see the nerdy guy again in a flashback.

The first of a series of chapter titles tells us we are at: “The Party.” It’s a welcome home party for Jimmy Boy (Jimmy Tatro), back from service a prison term. The host is his devoted father, Sosa (Keith David), the local crime kingpin. Sosa jovially welcomes the crowd, but lets them know that the person who framed Jimmy Boy will be dealt with.

Nick (Vince Vaughn) and Mike (James Marsden) are part of Sosa’s crime family. They leave the party to drive to a house, and Nick tells Mike to use a chloroformed handkerchief to knock out the person who answers the door. But when he gets to the door, the person who opens it is — Nick. It turns out that there are two Nicks, one from the present and the one in the car, who is used a time machine invented by Symon a few months in the future to go back in time and prevent Mike from being murdered by an assassin. Sosa believes Mike is the one who framed Jimmy and has sent a very scary hit man who solves the murderer’s biggest problem — disposing of the body — by eating them. Yes, he’s a cannibal assassin.

Another complication: Mike is having an affair with Nick’s estranged wife, Alice (Eiza González).

This is a top-notch cast, and every one of them gets the delicate balance of tone right on the button, keeping the energy of each scene high while they stay matter-of-fact in the most outlandish circumstances and handling the most outlandish dialogue with hilarious understatement. These are all awful people, but some of them are less awful and being funny about all the madness helps keep us on their side.

NOTE: Stay through the credits for an extra scene.

Parents should know that this is a very violent film about criminals who kill without any hesitation. There are many fights and shoot-outs with guns, grenades, and whatever blunt objects are at hand, as well as a cannibal assassin, with graphic and disturbing images. It also includes sexual references, nudity, and non-explicit situations with strippers, prostitutes, and references to impotence. Characters use constant strong language.

Family discussion: If you found a time machine, where would you go?

If you like this, try: “Mr. Right,” “Boss Level,” and “Shoot-Em-Up”

How to Make a Killing

Posted on February 20, 2026 at 3:37 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	R for violence, sexual references, pervasive language, and some drug use

I never had the love for Glen Powell’s “Hit Man” that most people did. The set-up and the wit were all wonderfully entertaining and the chemistry between Powell and Adria Arjona was off the charts, but the “happy” ending was too dark to fit the world of the rest of the film. The same issue creates even bigger problems with Powell’s new film, “How to Make a Killing,” inspired by the classic “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” with Alec Guinness playing eight roles, all relatives who were killed off, one by one, by a wily schemer. The multiple roles gimmick is fun, but that film, a Criterion Collection gem, works because it is an outstanding example of a black comedy. This one should have studied it more closely.

Like the original, this one begins with the hero/anti-hero in prison, waiting for his execution. Powell plays Becket Redfellow, whose mother was disowned by her very wealthy family when she became pregnant at age 18 and refused to have an abortion. His father died when he was an infant, so his mother raised him alone for a few years until she died, making him promise he would do whatever it took to have the “right life,” he deserved. By “right” she meant the wealth and prestige of her family. But when Becket, still a child, asked if his mother could be buried in the family mausoleum, the butler handed him a note with a “polite” refusal that wished him well.

As a child, Becket had a crush on Julia (Margaret Qualley as an adult). In Great Expectations fashion, they are separated for years and then meet again. He is still enthralled by her, but she is engaged to a man who shares her social cachet. She turns down his offer to get together to catch up and makes a joke about how Beckett should kill off those ahead of him in line to inherit his grandfather’s multi-billion dollar estate.

And then Beckett starts to kill off those ahead of him in line to inherit the estate. (Conveniently for the plot, the entire estate automatically goes to whoever is next in line.)

This gives us a chance to meet the relatives, who are all arrogant and selfish and not that interesting. There’s a partying finance bro, a pretentious artist, and a woman who brags about adopting 11 children from different countries. Topher Grace brings some vitality to his role as something between a prosperity gospel huckster and a personal empowerment huckster. One of the relatives turns out to be a decent guy, but he conveniently dies of natural causes. Cut to yet another scene in front of the family mausoleum.

A movie that asks us to root for a ruthless (note the name of a key character) serial killer needs a consistent, heightened, satiric tone and very sharp and specific characters. Think of a film like the original British version of “Bedazzled” (the Brendan Fraser remake is pretty good, too). The actors here seem to be coming from different movies. It should also have clever crimes. Like the characters, the crimes here are bland, and like “Hit Man” the end is unsatisfying and sour. Even a very black-humor-based movie has to have some kind of moral core. This one is just empty.

Parents should know that this film involves a series of murders of family members. Characters drink alcohol, smoke tobacco and weed, and use very strong language.

Family discussion: What is the “right life?” Why were the members of this family so selfish?

If you like this, try: “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” “Gross Pointe Blank,” and “Mr. Right”

Solo Mio

Posted on February 5, 2026 at 6:01 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for some suggestive material, brief language, violence and smoking
Profanity:	Mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and drunkenness, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Scuffle with no injuries
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	February 6, 2026

Kevin James and Angel Studios got together to make a PG-rated romantic comedy that you could easily mistake for a Hallmark movie. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; there’s a reason Hallmark movies are so beloved. They are the comfort food of movies. We know where they are going and we like them not in spite of that but because of that. This is in that category.

James, who produced, co-wrote, and stars, plays a cuddly but shy 50-something 4th grade art teacher who goes to Rome to marry his fiancee, Heather (Julie Ann Emery of “Better Call Saul”). The church is ready, the guests are seated. He waits for her at the altar, only to learn that she has run away, leaving him a letter with a non-explanation explanation.

Since he can’t get a refund on the “two become one” honeymoon tourist package, he is stuck exploring the Eternal City with newlywed couples, riding a tandem bicycle with an empty back seat.

Two men from the honeymoon couples in the group befriend him. Julian (Kim Coates of “Sons of Anarchy”), is not exactly a newlywed. He has just married the same woman (Alyson Hannigan as Meghan) for the third time. He urges Matt to go out drinking and in PG language cheer himself up by getting together with another woman.

Jonathan Roumie (Jesus in “The Chosen”), has just married Donna (Julee Cerda), who was his therapist. The jokes in the film about whether that is appropriate or even legal are not funny. But they don’t really get in the way because Julian and Jonathan are just there like the devil and angel on the shoulders of characters in old Saturday morning cartoons, one to urge Matt to go wild, one to advise him to sit with his feelings. While Matt does not appreciate their advice, he does appreciate their interest and support.

What he appreciates more is Gia (a radiant Nicole Grimaudo), owner of a local cafe. For some reason, possibly because he is played by the movie’s producer, co-writer, and star and has James’ imperishable likability, Matt appeals to her. Even though he is sad and hurt and lost, she wants to help him. As I said, we know where this is going, but it’s where we want to see it go, thanks to a couple of great pleasures.

The first is the lovingly filmed and inexpressibly gorgeous Italian scenery, from the Spanish Steps to the Tuscan countryside. We even get a glimpse of the legendary annual horse-race in Siena. The second is the superb selection of needle drops and diagenetic music in the film, a delicious assortment of pop and classical, English and Italian. The movie begins with Ed Sheeren’s “Perfect” behind the opening montage, and Matt is such a fan he wears a Sheeren t-shirt. Matt loves music and when Gia asks him to pick something for them to listen to as they share a late-night pastry in her cafe, it is the one moment in the film where we see him utterly confident and at home. The jazz record he selects is just right.

The story developments are not as well chosen, and there’s pentimento indicating some last-minute re-cuts, perhaps the reason Hannigan is criminally underused, and the Neil/Donna relationship is so clumsily handled. This is a don’t think too hard, enjoy the scenery and wait for a happy ending movie. In other words, wait for screening at home.

Parents should know that this movie has some drinking, with characters getting tipsy, mild sexual references, and a scuffle with no injuries.

Family discussion: What didn’t Matt see in his relationship with Heather? What part of Italy would you like to visit?

If you like this, try: “Under the Tuscan Sun,’ “Made in Italy,” “Letters to Juliet” and Hallmark movies set in Italy like “Villa Amore” and “The Groomsmen: Last Dance”