The September Issue
R.J. Cutler chronicles how Anna Wintour and her staff produced the enormous September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine.
Directed by R.J. Cutler
(PG-13)
***
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
An inside look at life at Vogue magazine
In fashion, there’s no one more influential—or more feared—than Anna Wintour, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. In The September Issue, R.J. Cutler unveils the woman behind the Vogue editor’s famous shades, painting a “lusciously revealing fly-on-the-wall portrait” of her reign over the fashion bible. “Organized so that we observe the ruthlessness, the high perfectionistic logic, of each decision Wintour makes,” the film chronicles the production of the enormous September 2007 issue. A real-life The Devil Wears Prada it’s not, said Mary Pols in Time. Cutler’s documentary is more than one-dimensional. The greatest treat is meeting Vogue’s creative director, Grace Coddington. “If Wintour is the pope, Coddington is Michelangelo, trying to paint a fresh version of the Sistine Chapel 12 times a year.” While this depiction of the womens’ relationship is “never boring, it’s also superficial,” said Nathan Rabin in The Onion. They and the magazine’s other colorful characters “might be too much” for a single documentary. With this much drama, every Vogue issue must deserve its own film.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com