Netflix has been on a roll with stellar documentary films in 2024, from Simone Biles Rising and Will & Harper to The Remarkable Life of Ibelin and The Menendez Brothers. The latest addition to the streaming library this week is Martha, a documentary following the life of Martha Stewart, from her start as a teenage model up through her indictment and beyond.
“Directed by R.J. Cutler, Martha draws on hundreds of hours of intimate interviews with Stewart and those from her inner circle,” Netflix explains, “along with Stewart’s private archives of diaries, letters, and never-seen-before footage.”
Stewart has lived one of the most interesting lives of any public figure in America. After finishing college, she followed in her father’s footsteps and kicked off a career as a stockbroker. Later on, she started a catering company, wrote books, began making appearances on TV, and launched her own magazine with Time Publishing Ventures. She would go on to become the first female self-made billionaire in the US when Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public.
“If you have a good idea, go with it,” Stewart told Netflix’s Skip Intro podcast. “If you have the wherewithal to build a business—and I don’t mean money so much as strength and fortitude—stick with it. You can build interest faster now than you could ever before. Believe in your idea and find a couple of like-minded people to build it with you.”
R.J. Cutler, director of Martha, was also behind Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, Belushi, The World According to Dick Cheney, and Elton John: Never Too Late.
Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive so far. Variety calls it “a transfixing story,” Guardian says that “Stewart is never less than compelling,” and The Hollywood Reports writes that “what keeps Martha engaging is watching Cutler thrust and parry with his subject.”
Martha is streaming on Netflix as of October 30, 2024.
