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THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE Review

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 3 months ago
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The September Issue is an irresistible pop culture mashup: imagine the Teen Vogue segments of The Hills (though her royal highness Anna Wintour is swapped in for cut-rate LA imitation Lisa Love, the MTV reality show’s masterful manner of spinning diegetic commentary out of eye rolls taken out of context is left intact), genetically blended into an alternate universe version of The Office. Except in this office, the workers actually work, and in fact are terrified not to because their boss is Michael Scott’s polar opposite: impatient, undemonstrative, and absolutely incapable of taking no for an answer.

As a portrait of Wintour the person, RJ Cutler’s documentary does little to dig under the surface of Wintour’s iconic, impassive under bangs image. But as a meditation on art vs commerce, emotion vs rationality, and the role of fantasy merchants in the recently-burst economic bubble, The September Issue is both cerebral and accessible. If it’s not as provocative as it could be, it’s definitely entertaining.

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THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE Review, Sundance 2009

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE Review, Sundance 2009

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 10 months ago
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Initially, The September Issue comes off as something like the Teen Vogue segments of The Hills (though her royal highness Anna Wintour is swapped in for cut-rate LA imitation Lisa Love, the MTV reality show’s masterful manner of spinning diegetic commentary out of eye rolls taken out of context is left intact), genetically blended into an alternate universe version of The Office. Except in this office, the workers actually work, and in fact are terrified not to because their boss is Michael Scott’s polar opposite: impatient, undemonstrative, and absolutely incapable of taking no for an answer.

As a portrait of Wintour the person, RJ Cutler’s documentary does little to dig under the surface of Wintour’s iconic, impassive under bangs image. But as a meditation on art vs commerce, emotion vs rationality, and the role of fantasy merchants in the recently-burst economic bubble, The September Issue is both cerebral and accessible. If it’s not as provocative as it could be, it’s definitely entertaining.

…Read more

Bond Delay: Trade Roughage 03/20/08

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago
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  • New James Bond film Quantum of Solace will open in France, Belgium and the U.K. before it comes to the U.S. on November 7. Why? This Variety story doesn’t say, but it does devote three paragraphs to Quantum’s exceedingly boring Bond boilerplate plot.
  • There’s a new Tyler Perry movie opening this weekend, and if this Variety story is any indication, if it does well it’ll be the first time in three years that a Perry film opens at the top of the box office without the trades pretending like it’s a surprise. Also of note: Drillbit Taylor seems to be suffering from a post-Semi-Pro lowering of expectations.
  • Doc maker RJ Cutler has plans to adapt the book Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America into a non-fiction film.
  • Hot Docs has unveiled its lineup. Among the 173 films set to screen are Nursery University, about “the bloodsport of nursery school admissions in post 9/11 New York,” and Bloody Cartoons,  a look at “satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed published in Denmark.”