Review of The September Issue (2009) by Marlon V — 23 Sep 2009

The September Issue gets its name for the supposedly most important issue of Vogue. In the documentary, it is stated that September is the January of Vogue. It marks the turning point of the year, when the it starts and when it showcases the changes.

Anna Wintour is the main person of interest in the film. We follow her navigate the treacherous waters of building and cutting what makes the fashion magazine such a focal point of the fashion world. Yes, she is the leading character but who do we root for?

The film effortlessly shifts its focus to Anna's second in command, Grace Coddington. If Anna is involved in every facet of the magazine, beautiful as well as ugly, Grace is only concerned about the design, the pictures, the romance. The silent war between these two opinionated women make for some of the film's best moments. The friction between them, while walking the immaculate corridors of the Vogue offices or riding the polished elevators, is palpable and almost hilarious to watch. Grace, with a shocking pile of frizzy red hair and pale, wrinkled skin, comes off as the ultimate pal, the maternal protector. We love her when she refuses to have a less than flattering image of a "gut" photoshopped as it compromises her vision and we want to cheer when she encourages a thin model to eat a piece of cake she's starving for. Grace provides us a delightful figure in this chaos of vanity, perfection and the general business of fashion, someone we can actually love and it also helps that she's a genius. The images she assists on envisioning and physically creating are arresting.

It's too bad that The September Issue lacks a spark that we can't help but notice. We can't help but notice that Anna Wintour, who is originally the character to be revealed, remains sphinx like. We don't see her as a monster. We do get to see some vulnerability but we don't see what makes her tick. We don't know about her. We also don't exactly see why the september issue should be so important. We see how these creative minds struggle to put the pieces together but we don't see much about the finished product. Maybe the movie is a ploy to purchase the magazine and if that's the case, it works. But still, something is missing here. The cattiness that we've come to expect is sporadic and the glamour is stripped off its fairytale.

The September Issue is still worth seeing for the skillful rendering of the behinds the scenes goings on of the magazine and if you're any at all interested or mystified about the fashion industry at large, you might want to pause talking about Project Runway and watch Project September.