Over the Top

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

The September Issue - Movie PosterTHE SEPTEMBER ISSUE is an excellent documentary about the making of the September 2007 issue of VOGUE magazine and its legendary editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, said to be the inspiration for the Meryl Streep character in the 2006 THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.

Wintour is called the single most important figure in the $300 billion fashion industry. That is a lot of dresses, shoes, accessories, makeup, a lot of woman, and by that I don’t mean Wintour, but all the women all over the world, as well as the ones in every man’s life.

Now, I know what you are thinking: “Sure, women will like this movie, because it is all about fashion and clothes, but will men like it, too?

Of course, women will love it for the fashion, and men will love it for the beautiful models. You will see beautiful outfits on beautiful women and ugly, atrocious outfits on beautiful women.

As someone in the film says, “Anna is the most powerful woman in the United States.”

Why? Because Vogue is the so-called “Bible” of the fashion industry, and if VOGUE–meaning Anna Wintour–gets behind something, it sells.

However, as Anna herself says at the beginning of the film, “There is something about fashion that can make people very nervous.”

The film begins in 2007 in New York City, and we see what goes into the making of the September issue of the magazine, because “September is the January in fashion.” A film crew was given access to everything, including the offices, the private lives of the editors and creative directors, the photo sessions, and the trips to Paris, Rome, and London for the fashion shows, meetings, and photo shoots for the cover with actress Sienna Miller.

The film also spends a lot of time with Grace Coddington, the magazine’s creative director and “resident genius,” as TIME magazine called her.

She and Anna started working at the American VOGUE on the same day 20 years ago, and Grace serves as some of the comic relief in the seriousness of the film, as we see her frustration after spending a lot of time and money on portions of the magazine only to have Anna take them out at the last minute or order a reshoot.

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE is over the top, but fascinating, just like fashion.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”