If you’ve ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at a fashion magazine, here’s your chance to sneak a peek: A new documentary called The September Issue follows the most talented, influential staffers of Vogue magazine as they work on the September 2007 issue, their thickest to date. (Needless to say, the September 2009 issue isn't nearly so hefty and, in fact, the film functions as an eerie portrait of the mag's pre-recession days.)

I'm fresh from the press preview, and here's my take: Filmmaker R. J. Cutler was greatly sympathetic to Vogue creative director Grace Coddington, a self-described romantic with the remarkable ability to paint fashion spreads in her imagination, then realize them in the flesh when she works as a photo stylist. To my mind, it seems anyone in a highly visual, creative field—painting, graphic design, etc.—would benefit from watching the interviews with Coddington. For one, her scenes are the most beautiful (of course, the aesthete often travels to gorgeous environments), but it’s also useful to see how she reconciles her creative visions with the business realities of her job.  

Anna Wintour comes across in the usual manner: stoic, emotionally detached, and painfully blunt, although the viewer gets to see her act tenderly toward her college-aged daughter. When she’s not consulting for Neiman Marcus or keeping appointments with John Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, and the like, Wintour sweeps through the magazine's pin-up room to make knee-jerk decisions about the content. (The camera glimpses a scared, skinny underling bobbing and weaving to get out of her way.) It’s funny, but I came to appreciate that only a small fraction of her decrees are actually smart and/or thoughtful—this, coming from someone who appreciates Wintour as a visionary. What Wintour possesses, rather, is the confidence to make snap decisions, no matter whose heart she breaks. Sometimes the results were brilliant over the years, but more often while working on the September 2007 issue—it appeared they were not.

As for editor-at-large André Leon Talley, well, I feel bad about what I’m going to say here… I know he has his fans, but in this movie he looks so ridiculous he seems like a cartoon. (This shouldn't surprise his readers.) On the other hand, I wish we’d seem more of executive fashion editor Candy Pratts Price (the star of these bizarre videos on style.com)—now, that’s an interesting personality, if you ask me.

Even though I’ve never been on staff with a global fashion magazine, I recognized many of the magazine’s methods from my own work life: the high-stress pin-up meetings and the hurt feelings that often result, the employees who get crowned resident geniuses and the privileges they enjoy. Of course, it’s fun to recognize me and my colleagues in the pictures, but the friend who accompanied me to this screening (a professional singer and voice instructor who never worked in magazines) similarly enjoyed her peek at the publication’s inner-workings. In other words, it's a good flick.

Here's what I liked most—the documentary deflected an irritating stereotype I keep encountering, the one that insists fashion editors must be beautiful and consistently clad in lavish designer clothes. In fact, the magazine’s hardest working staffers appear ordinary, unkempt, or even a few pounds overweight—with the exception of Wintour, of course. She gets a hefty clothing and styling allowance from her bosses at Condé Nast.

The September Issue opens September 11.