September Issue, The

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Lusciously revealing fly-on-the-wall portrait of Anna Wintour.

Film Threat Whitney Borup

A wonderful film, and one with vast appeal. Giving us everything we have come to expect from our fashion-centered programming and more, we are left with the sense that we have uncovered a mystery.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Filled with vivacity, charm and, yes, beauty.

Empire Damon Wise

A splendid study of the forces and passions behind the world’s biggest fashion magazine.

NPR Jeannette Catsoulis

Though most will visit R.J. Cutler's subtle, supple documentary hoping to peek beneath the formidable bangs of Vogue editor Anna Wintour, they will be disappointed: This is a movie whose ambitions range wider than the contents of her guarded psyche.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Beaded with amusing moments.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

What comes across is that she is, after all, a very good editor.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

As for getting close to Wintour -- or even explaining the unfathomable mystery that can be haute couture -- the film comes up empty.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Compulsively entertaining documentary.

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

A crisp and entertaining documentary.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

For all its ballyhoo'd full access to Vogue's inner workings, the movie's cinéma-vérité approach feels perilously close to advertorial.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A subversively entertaining documentary.

USA Today Claudia Puig

While it doesn't scratch much below the surface, The September Issue is an entertainingly voyeuristic glimpse into the fashion world.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

What the movie unfolds is how the magazine is inextricable from Wintour’s vision of it.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

This entertaining, glib movie is about the maintenance of a brand that Ms. Wintour has brilliantly cultivated since she assumed her place at the top of the editorial masthead in 1988 and which the documentary’s director, R. J. Cutler, has helped polish with a take so flattering he might as well work there.

Los Angeles Times Sheri Linden

A slight, if often riveting, behind-the-scenes documentary.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

When it's all over, we still don't know who Wintour really is.

The Hollywood Reporter Justin Lowe

Consistent with her ice queen reputation, Wintour is often disconcertingly direct and frequently unfeeling, though not without a dry sense of humor.

Variety Justin Chang

A dishy and engrossing peek inside the fashion world’s corridors of power -- every bit as slickly packaged as the publication it seeks to uncover.

Village Voice Melissa Anderson

Wintour's arctic imperiousness has a way of creating the most masochistic deference, a dynamic that R.J Cutler superficially explores--and becomes prone to--in his documentary The September Issue.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Behind the gloss of Vogue, a revealing look at work, creativity and two strong women

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

A fascinating, frustrating documentary.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Like a time capsule from another era of journalism, The September Issue chronicles a distant past that flourished not but two years ago.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

What's most conspicuously missing from this ensemble is some input from the advertisers who subsidize Wintour's tyranny, and the readers who are seduced into buying her beautiful four-pound paperweights.

Time Out New York Keith Uhlich

The doc’s breakout star is Vogue creative director Grace Coddington, a former model whose plain appearance (the end result of a horrible car accident) and frumpy clothing belie her genius for fashion. She counters her boss every chance she can get and provides the film with a much-needed emotional center.

Washington Post Ruth McCann

It's delicious and ensnaring and easy on the eyes, but it can't give you the definitive truth about notoriously frosty Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The September Issue fixates on status and professional one-upmanship; if you want to see a movie that actually treats fashion as personal expression--in other words, art--keep a lookout for Anne Fontaine’s forthcoming biopic "Coco Before Chanel."

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

The press notes boast that Mr. Cutler was given "unprecedented access" and the right of final cut; these advantages don't seem to have done much for this listless film.