The September Issue (2009)

Sorry, this movie sucks

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Am I the only one that agrees with Tessa 11. This clunker has all the earmarks of R.J. Cutler being 'paid' to make a corporate video for Vogue...for about $500 including meals. Why $500? Well, take about 20 miniDV tapes at $5 each. That's $100. Then add about $400 for food for a week in NYC. Presto: Boring video about fashion world.Was this film in the..the theaters? IMDb says it made money. Wow! I thought it was a Lifetime video when I got it for free from our local library. Were patrons able to get a refund on their tickets?Make no mistake. I love beautiful girls. I love great fashion. I have several Polo shirts and shorts.The only fashion in this diatribe is the few runway shots, and quick two second glimpses of models blow drying their hair. There was a quick 1 second shot of Anna as a 21 yr old as a babe with the oh-so-chic black page boy with bangs. OK, she was hot back then.R.J tries to be the next Fred Wiseman, but falls way, way short as his forte seems to be those bogus 'reality shows' for cable and offers not much in behind the scenes here, giving the film a 'corporate video' look and feel.With no voice over to guide the viewer, this video seems to follow dowagers and former fashionistas through hallways and into limos, and with a few inane conversations with co-workers. Is that all they do is walk down hallways and look at light boxes with slides on them? Oh, once in awhile they open their lipstick lips to utter nonsense about the 'fabulous' September phone book size issue of Vogue. Was that big redhead a former UFC cage fighter. One wonders.The only 'exposure' of the fashion world was something everyone knew. No one wears those clothes except for a few fashion mavens that appear in the back pages of the NYT when they are photographed by Bill Cunningham at social events in faux haute couture clothing.And we all know that those fabulous models can hardly wait to get home slip out of those 4" heels and skin tight pencil skirts or fu fu skirts and throw on a t-short and shorts, and tennis shoes.The viewer would find much more excitement in watching Real Housewives of Miami and pondering whether the "wives" are going to get drunk on Vodka or Scotch and if they will get their french nails done in time for weekly Saturday party. OMG, will they be able to do it in time. Hey get R.J. on this we need a corporate video here.

I've worked in and around fashion and the entertainment industry most of my life. I really enjoyed The September Issue as it validated that a lot of work goes into promoting and sustaining the industry.I really liked how Anna Wintour was portrayed and I wholeheartedly agree with what she said about ever leaving the industry...she said she would leave if she found herself getting too mad. I also very much enjoyed Grace Coddington. I think she's probably the most real person in fashion and Vogue and Anna Wintour are lucky to have her.On the other hand, I think we all wish we could be like the character "Andrea" in The Devil Wears Prada. It would be awesome to have access to the greatest fashions in the world and stylists to show you how to wear them, hair and makeup tips and unlimited accessories. But, as we all can see, that's not really the case. Most people working in fashion, magazines, films, TV, etc. look like they've never heard of or seen fashion. Most of them show up for work without hair or makeup done and their outfits look as if they came straight off the racks...of Goodwill.That is, except for Andre Leon Talley. Have you ever seen anyone with more cliché, logo accessories? Again, he's probably a very nice guy, but does he really do anything? He appears to be little more than the office mascot as I have never seen him do any actual work. He always has the latest/greatest swag, but he just comes across as a caftan covered caricature of what a fashion editor should look like. He must really have some juicy dirt on Conde Naste. I don't think a female editor would ever be allowed to get away with not doing any actual work. He's closer to The Devil Wears Prada, LV and any other free designer labeled swag than Ann Wintour. But hey, it's a great job if you can get it! Overall, the documentary was very well done and very interesting to watch.

How can one woman hold so much power in a multi-billion dollar industry? The September Issue shows all the mind-blowing meticulous and uncompromising work that went behind the biggest issue of American Vogue, the September 2007 840-page phone book-thick fall fashion bible. If you thought Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada was, well, a devil, then the real-life pope of international fashion whose word on all things sartorial is doctrine and canon will leave you speechless as she makes the most famous and esteemed designers nervous like little girls who doubt that they know even a single thing about clothes, puts into trash $ 50,000 worth of fashion editorial work, and dictates to major retailers what the rest of us are going to wear.However, the more profound aspects of this documentary are the less notorious driving or hindering forces of multi-million-copy-selling Vogue. Anna Wintour, aka "nuclear Wintour," has chinks in her armor. After all, every deity is a human first, and Anna is a mother to a daughter who thinks that the fashion industry is "amusing," a sentiment shared by Anna's three other siblings. To the commander-in-chief of couture and prêt-a-porter, this seems to send an unwelcoming weakness. Juxtaposed with Anna is creative director Grace Coddington, the apparent warmness to Anna's iciness. Pushing each other has been the norm for their 20 years of working close together. The dynamic between the two is exciting, frustrating, and a necessary endeavor to produce the pages of fashion's most revered reference. Fashion people will eat up this film. However, normal people/fashion outsiders will not regret seeing this insightful piece about how it is to be supremely powerful, what it takes to be at the pinnacle, and the costs of this might and glory.

I was interested in this movie for two reasons: one, because I love fashion and everything it stands for, and two, because I wanted to see Anna Wintour's persona in a movie other than The Devil Wears Prada, which, I suspected, might have painted her a little bit darker than she really is.The movie is not disappointing. It a great documentary, with lots of great music. You have a feeling that it shows the industry for what it really is: it doesn't add and it doesn't remove anything. If it's really that close to the truth, only people from the industry can tell.The movie doesn't have a specific plot -since it's a documentary- but it focuses around the process of putting together the September issue of Vogue. A lot of staff is shown, in their daily habitat, in between clothes, photographers, make-up flying everywhere. They're not shown as people who are too sure about their jobs: they love them, of course, but there is a lot of insecurity in their actions. What I really enjoyed about the movie was its lightness. Wintour is depicted as a delightful, professional person, rather quiet, not too bitchy, not too shy. She definitely knows what she wants: she points shots that need to be removed from the photoshoot, she vetoes decisions stylists around her make, and she just goes forward with a great deal of sureness and confidence. That confidence adds a lot of comfort to the movie, and isn't cold at the same time.Overall, the movie will be probably raved about mostly by fashion addicts like myself. It's not a necessary position to have or to watch, but its certain wisdom makes the experience enjoyable, and for that, I truly recommend it.