McQueen Is the Rare Doc That Must Be Seen on the Big Screen

One of the most surprising biographical tidbits in McQueen, the new documentary about the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, is that he didn't know a collection could tell a "story" until he was several apprenticeships into the fashion industry. He was obviously a fast learner. Even among top-tier designers, McQueen became well-known for his theatrical runway shows. The half-dozen or so presentations we see in the film evoke Jack the Ripper, a mental asylum, sexual assault, robots, demons, goddesses, and animal chimeras. Not all the shows were well received. Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui's smartest tactic--the one that makes McQueen such a pleasure to watch, even for fashion outsiders--is giving viewers a front-row seat to the runway, then letting us judge the designer's oeuvre for ourselves.