Look, I don’t have deep-seated interest in the world of fashion. But that’s kind of why I was looking forward to Andrew Rossi’s The First Monday in May, a documentary that explores what goes into planning one of the most exclusive parties in the world, the Met Gala – a documentary that opened the 15th Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday night. I truly enjoyed Rossi’s Page One: Inside The New York Times and, often, some of my favorite documentaries are about subjects that I had little knowledge of going in.
(And I will also say: the Tribeca Film Festival always does a really nice job with its opening night. Three years ago, I watched The National perform. Two years ago, Nas performed Illmatic in its entirety. I think it’s safe to say that this is a night I look forward to.)
In 2011, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute curator, Andrew Bolton (who seems like a nice enough fellow), created his most revered collection for the Met Gala, “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.” He’s never been able to top that, but he really wants to with “China: Through the Looking Glass.” So, yes, the conflict in the The First Monday in May is basically, “Can I be better than I was a few years ago?”
I suspect planning something as big as the Met Gala is very complicated and I bet there are a lot of intricacies that could even come off as humorous from the outside looking in. Here’s the problem: The First Monday in May is produced by Conde Nast, which publishes Vogue. Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, is the person who throws this annual party. So, what we get is a very sanitized – and super serious – look at this important party. And, even after watching this entire documentary, I still don’t feel that I have a good understanding of how this party is planned.
If you believe what we see in The First Monday in May, there’s never a “freak-out” moment. Things go really swimmingly. I take that back, at one point Bolton drops a glass and it breaks. That’s the biggest disaster we see. I have a feeling that the juiciest material is sitting on a hard drive locked away at One World Trade Center. (Or, more likely, it’s just been deleted. On another note: Someone really needs to come up with a fun term that means “on the cutting room floor” for the digital age.)
There are a couple of fun moments, like when an organizer asks what potential invitee Josh Hartnett has been in lately. (I suspect that’s not a fun scene for Josh Hartnett.) The most compelling scenes come from Wintour and her team deciding where people will sit. Honestly, this is about as exciting as it sounds, but compared to the rest of the film, this is real drama.
Hey, guess what, the Met Gala happened! The celebrities all made it. And, yes, we get to watch a very long sequence of famous people arriving on the red carpet. Then we get to watch famous people looking at exhibits saying, “Wow,” over and over. So, yes, a good portion of this film is watching people look at museum exhibits. (Justin Bieber shows up and kind of acts like an asshole. Which, at this point, is just expected.)
In a world where two Zoolander movies exist, I really never thought we’d see a super serious look at the fashion world like this. But, here it is. (Strangely enough, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson make a cameo in character.) Sometimes it does come off as parody, even though it’s not meant to come off that way. A lot of people who probably assume they come off looking great (I mean, these people I’m sure had final edit) don’t come off always looking the best. I think there’s a good documentary to be made about this subject, but it needs to be an outsider. This all comes off as one big paid advertisement for Vogue and the Met Gala.
The film shows Larry David arriving for the Met Gala. He looks around at the lavish scenery that we just spent the last 90 minutes or so watching being built. He mutters, “What the f*ck is this?” This is the best moment in the movie. Yes, what the f*ck is this, indeed?
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
