The September Issue

City Paper Grade: B+

by Molly Eichel

EN VOGUE: R.J. Cutler's documentary The September Issue focuses on Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour during the style bible's biggest issue.

[ City Paper Grade: B+ ]

Roughly the size of a phone book, Vogue's September issue is the hook for R.J. Cutler's verité-style doc about the inner workings of the glossy. More importantly, the film focuses on its editor in chief/"high priestess" Anna Wintour, who is more of a legend due to her fictionalization in The Devil Wears Prada, a screed written by a former assistant, which portrayed her as a demanding boss who requested the ridiculous and unfeasible. But Cutler's film isn't about fashion; it's about work and how the relationships and tensions formed therein create greatness.

The Oscar to Wintour's Felix is Grace Coddington, Vogue's longtime creative director who started in the trenches and rose through the ranks with Wintour. While Wintour comes off as cold and exacting, Coddington is warm and funny, with all of her work cloaked in a dreamy haze. She steals the show from the Ice Queen. But even with Prada's mythical exaggeration, Wintour herself doesn't seem that scary; she's simply particular and demanding. She's not afraid to say what she wants and is not pleased until it's done to her liking.

This may be a product of one-sided portraiture on Cutler's part, but Wintour doesn't seem like a woman who would be ashamed of her bitch-in-heels rep. In one hilarious scene, Coddington includes cinematographer Bob Richman (whose work on the film is excellent) in a photo shoot. When Wintour sees the proofs, she insists that Richman's sizable belly be airbrushed out. He's not a model, but this is still her magazine.