The Devil Wears Prada 2 — and Two Spy Thrillers You Should Watch Instead
FILM REVIEWS
WHAT’S GOING ON is a bi-monthly blog—part travel journal, part film notebook, part storytelling space—where I write about entertainment, the road, and whatever else refuses to leave my head.
(Parts of this column are taken from an article on my travel site, Tripswithjames.com.)
I’ve spent much of my life directing film and theatre, and this space is where I write about entertainment, storytelling, culture, and the occasional strange corner of life that catches my attention. Recently I saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 — and while it’s beautifully made, it also reminded me how rare genuine character transformation has become in mainstream films.
Prada 2 is a beautifully crafted film — gorgeous cinematography, strong performances, stunning fashion — the real highlight for me was the location work in Milan. The production made full use of the Piazza del Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the first indoor shopping center in the world. It’s a feast for the eyes.
What it isn’t is a feast for the soul.
The original Devil Wears Prada became a cultural phenomenon not because it was expected to — it wasn’t — but because it had something rare in a studio comedy: character growth. Anne Hathaway’s Andy starts out as a geeky, badly dressed aspiring journalist who stumbles into a job at the top fashion magazine in America. Through that experience she transforms into a polished fashion insider. And when she’s offered the chance to become Miranda Priestly’s number‑one assistant, she realizes that this isn’t the life she wants. She walks away.
There’s an arc. There’s conflict. There’s a before and after.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 doesn’t have that. No one changes. Miranda stays the same. Andy stays the same. Emily stays the same. Everyone is frozen in place. Andy is now an award‑winning journalist who gets fired — and then immediately gets hired by the magazine owner the next day. Miranda pretends not to know her, but of course she does. There’s a flicker of tension there, but neither character evolves. Andy helps Miranda regain control of the magazine, but she herself doesn’t grow, and Miranda remains the same manipulative fashion titan she’s always been.
So while The Devil Wears Prada 2 is polished and entertaining, it ultimately feels dramatically weightless. Beautiful surfaces can carry a film only so far. What made the original memorable was not the fashion or the wit, but transformation — the sense that the characters had been altered by experience.
Which brings me to two gripping spy thrillers that understand exactly that — both are smarter, deeper, and far more emotionally satisfying than the Prada sequel. And both are totally worth the effort to find them on a streaming platform - I have seen Traitor on Prime, and The American is a little harder to fine - but Amazon and Hulu should have it. Good hunting - you will enjoy both.
Traitor (2008)
Starring: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce
Directed by: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Story by: Steve Martin (yes — that banjo-playing, Murder in the Bulding, Steve Martin)
Traitor is an intelligent, tightly constructed terrorism thriller that never takes the easy way out. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 65%, and Roger Ebert awarded it three out of four stars.
Don Cheadle — always compelling, and in person a genuinely kind guy — plays a former Sudanese‑American U.S. soldier with expertise in explosives who appears to have joined a terrorist organization. He becomes the prime suspect in a series of global bombings targeting civilians. Hot on his trail is FBI agent Guy Pearce, who gradually begins to question what Cheadle’s character is really doing — and why.
The film weaves conspiracy, politics, and moral ambiguity into a tense, thoughtful narrative. It refuses to simplify terrorism into caricatures. Instead, it explores the motivations behind extremism — not to excuse it, but to humanize the people involved, which makes the story more disturbing and more powerful.
This isn’t a James Bond villain story with billionaires seeking world domination. It’s about the foot soldiers — the believers, the angry, the desperate. The ones who do the grunt work.
Shot on location in Toronto, Marseille, and Marrakesh, the film uses its settings beautifully. The supporting cast — Jeff Daniels, Neal McDonough, and Archie Panjabi — is excellent.
A strong, underrated thriller
The American (2010)
Starring: George Clooney
Directed by: Anton Corbijn
Based on: A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth
The American was marketed as a high‑octane spy thriller — chases, guns, beautiful women, shadowy villains. But what audiences actually got was something far more interesting: a quiet, tightly controlled character study filled with silence, long takes, and a slow‑building sense of dread.
Many viewers were disappointed because they expected Bourne. What they got was something closer to a European art film.
Clooney plays Jack, a hardened but haunted assassin. From the opening moments, he’s on the run from Swedish hitmen — but the chase is slow, methodical, almost meditative. Instead of nonstop action, we descend into the life and mind of a solitary killer — an American version of a samurai, defined entirely by his skill and his master.
The film was shot mostly in Italy, and cinematographer Martin Ruhe fills it with gorgeous, lingering images of ancient countryside. You half expect a Roman legion to appear over a hill.
We never fully learn what Jack did or why people want him dead. The unanswered questions don’t matter — the film is about the loneliness of a man who has lived too long in the shadows and is searching for redemption, or at least escape.
Director Anton Corbijn brings a photographer’s eye to every frame. There isn’t a wrong shot in the film. Clooney is in complete command of his performance.
A beautiful, melancholy, tightly crafted film. Highly recommended.
James Carey is an award-winning film and theatre director, writer, performer, and producer based in Atlanta, known for the films Come Walk With Me (2026), Love Potion (2023), Divorce During Pandemic (2020), Fancy Meeting You Here (2018) and A Cost of Freedom (2008). His two features are the multiple award winner Madly (2021-Co-Director) & Alternative Endings (2022-Co-Director). As an actor, he has appeared in God’s Not Dead 5 (2024), Color Purple the Musical (2023), Division (2022), Madly (2022) and numerous short films and industrials.
Please check out my new book of short stories, What Comes In The Dark, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kindle in ebook form. Only 2.99. Well worth it!
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