★★★

Andrew Rossi​'s new documentary, The First Monday In May, is a film about art, commerce, fashion and celebrity, a tale of museums and movie stars, haute couture and seating plans.

It revolves around a 2015 exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the museum show is only part of the story; a great deal of time and energy is spent chronicling the work behind the scenes on the high-profile launch event – the legendary Met Gala.

For this reason, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour​ is treated as the central figure of the film. Wintour, who has held the job since 1988, is a Met trustee and has been chair of the fundraising gala for more than 20 years. The tyrannical editor of The Devil Wears Prada is supposedly based on her, and she has featured in a couple of documentaries, notably The September Issue, which explored Vogue's biggest edition of the year. On that occasion, her single-minded creative director, Grace Coddington, almost stole the film; this time, Wintour seems to be top dog.

Fashion might have once been relegated to the basement of the Met, but things have changed. Costume exhibitions are crowd-pleasers, and Wintour, who also has a wing of the museum named after her, evidently wields plenty of power. There are moments in the documentary when she seems to be able to tell Met staff what's what, as if they were Vogue interns.

The 2015 show, China: Through The Looking Glass, is presided over by curator Andrew Bolton, an Englishman who was responsible for a phenomenonally successful Alexander McQueen exhibition in 2011. This new show explores the way Western fashion designers have used China as an inspiration. Guests at the gala are expected to dress to suit the theme of the show, preferably in a spectacular manner.

The First Monday In May acknowledges the pitfalls inherent in such an exhibition — the dangers of celebrating or reinforcing cultural appropriation and ethnic stereotyping. And some Met staff fear that the show will simply use the museum's collection of Asian art as window-dressing. Having acknowledged these issues, the film doesn't go much deeper. It places these challenges alongside gala guest list issues and an unconvincing "will they get it together in time?" narrative strand.

The documentary doesn't really tell us much about the items in the show either. But it gives us enough glimpses of the content to ensure that it is beautiful to look at. Rossi has had plenty of access, and there are gossipy insights and a few wry moments that undercut some of the work's quasi-promotional tendencies.

Alongside Wintour and Bolton, there's another interesting figure, Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai. Wong – whose film In The Mood For Love is cited as an exhibition inspiration for its costumes and hauntingly beautiful visual style – was a creative director for the show. He's a fleeting presence here. Yet in his quiet, low-key way, he's a voice of reason, scepticism, and an appreciation of what's at stake. It's not clear what ultimate effect he had, but his attitude in the midst of all the hoopla is very welcome.