The September Issue (Monday, September 7, 2009) (124)

I went to see this movie because I was told that when Anna Wintour told me to do something (wear more fur, wear black, wear thongs) I should do it. So I went to this documentary about the behind-the-scenes production of the 2007 Vogue September issue.

My first reaction to this is how very 2007 the movie is. People are spending money at a silly speed and the concept that the entire publishing industry is going down the toilet (or that the economy will be in the toilet in 12 months) is never mentioned or thought about. At one point, Grace Coddington, Anna Wintour's creative director, comments that when Anna scrapped three pictures from a shoot she had just done, she threw away more than $50,000 worth of work. We then see her scrap dozens more shoots. They travel to Rome and Paris in high style and organize a re-shoot in the Hamptons on two-days notice. I understand that Vogue makes a ton of money, but some of the spending seems silly and extreme.

The second thing I notice is how totally in their own strange world fashion people are. The film opens with Anna Wintour talking to the director R.J. Cutler about how many people laugh at fashion because it 'scares them'. But this is silliness, Anna - we laugh at fashion because fools like you make comments like that. We laugh at fashion - just as we see you laughing - because sometimes its silly and unwearable. We laugh when Vogue design honcho Andre Leon Tally goes to play tennis with a Louis Vuitton blanket around his neck and has a LV tennis racket case and an LV Fiji water bottle caddy. This is silly stuff.

I like this movie - it's interesting and moves along rather well. I would have liked a bit more narration or direction about what was going on at different moments aside from that it was 'three months until deadline' or 'six weeks until deadline' (in the fashion vacuum where I live, those points mean nothing to me). Cutler does an admirable job of showing Wintour as a cogent decision maker rather than simply a heartless bitch. He also shows how some things might look wonderful but might end up on the editing floor due to space or taste needs

Stars: 2.5 of 4