The September Issue (12A)

Fiction has an easy shorthand for the brutality enacted in the name of fashion: find a plain (but not too plain) girl and have someone call her fat and frumpy. From Now Voyager to The Devil Wears Prada, fashion condemns and then proceeds to save these beauties in disguise from a life of cardigans and sensible shoes, but there's always a price to pay.

The September Issue, which tracks the making of the important autumn issue of American Vogue, is careful to steer clear of such stereotypical bitchiness. In fact, the main bugbear of the fashion industry, body shape, seems almost forgotten. Instead the film emphasises the creativity involved in producing the magazine, and the dismissive management style of omnipotent editor in chief, Anna Wintour (infamously known as 'Nuclear Wintour' precisely because of this approach).

The September Issue is basically a puff piece, which industry insiders hope will boost interest in fashion during the global recession. But when the subjects are as glamorous as Vogue, and as fascinatingly harsh as Anna Wintour, one can forgive a little puff. The most intriguing aspect of The September Issue is the relationship of mutual admiration and struggle between Wintour and her creative director, Grace Coddington. Both have worked for the magazine for twenty years, and both are prodigiously talented. Grace's creativity and enthusiasm is as interesting to watch as is Wintour's no-compromise business nous.

The film mostly avoids Bruno-like absurdity, partly by channelling it all through the person of Andre Leon Talley, the large editor at large. Talley is introduced swathed in fur, gesticulating and wailing about being starved of beauty. Later, he plays tennis in a diamond watch with a mini set of Louis Vuitton luggage to hold his refreshments. And there are small moments when the stupidity of fashion bursts forth: an editor pitches a feature by saying that she wants to write about 'the advances in eyes', and stories about clothes are discussed in terms of 'messages' and 'heartbreak'.

Despite this there is mercifully little jargon. Dresses are dresses and jackets are jackets, even if they are the new coats. At one photoshoot Coddington describes a tufty headpiece as a 'head thing'. This straightforwardness is endearing and unexpected, as is Wintour's frequent observation that a piece of clothing is 'pretty', an adjective somehow too mundane and emotive for haute couture.

And there are also some interesting observations. Wintour and American Vogue have a strong sway over the designers' output. Prada has changed a line of knitwear in line with Vogue's recommendations about its market feasibility, an influence unthinkable in many other publishing arenas.

The September Issue is an entertaining and unexpectedly moving watch. The 'girls' are still painfully thin and difficult issues are ignored. But we end up rooting for the staff of Vogue, and appreciating Wintour as an editor with one priority – to keep the magazine on top regardless of hurt feelings. Coddington's photoshoots are truly stunning, and her enjoyment of her work gives the film its spirit: the frivolous (if financially inadvisable) fun to be got from pretty dresses.