Review of Martha, directed by R.J. Cutler

Martha Stewart is one of those figures I grew up with. My mother was mildly into her, then when it was time to go to college, and I made the ultimate decision to go to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City for college. I had no experience in fashion, but I was a kid from Baltimore with a dream.

Spoiler: I did not end up in the fashion industry, as I learned I seriously disagreed with a lot of the ethical practices that were going on in the industry. But when I was in my sophomore year, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I took an Introduction to Home class.

It essentially was a course introducing the ins and outs of the home industry. It was taught by the professor who ran Martha Stewart’s brand at the time as President, and it was the first time I was exposed to this side of the industry. I went on to be the home design intern at Fashion Snoops, a fashion forecasting company, and I still love interior design.

I was thinking of this when I opened Netflix one day and saw Martha the documentary had just been released. I knew I wanted to watch it, as I didn’t really know a ton about who Martha Stewart was beyond her brand.

And I watched all of it in one sitting. Let’s get into the review!

A magnifying glass into the rise and fall of American home icon Martha Stewart.

This is a documentary that truly goes through it all: we begin with Stewart’s upbringing, which is a modest one where she started working as a model in order to help out her family. Martha was noticed for her looks pretty early on, which led her to pursue acting and modeling around town in order to keep food on the table.

Then, when the time comes to go to college, she goes to Barnard. This is an achievement in itself, but pretty quickly, as the documentary states, she was getting attention around the campus and town. People knew who she was, and it was another girl who arranged a blind date with her brother.

This would be the man Martha ended up marrying, then divorcing years later. Martha’s marriage is what transformed her into the Martha Stewart we know today. He was a wealthy man, and it was through him that she was able to see what fine living was like.

She took up gardening, picking out the best furniture to adorn the house with. Eventually, she started catering parties, and all of New York’s elite would come to hire her for their events. She made a name for herself doing that company, then she decided to expand it into what we know today as Martha Stewart Living.

But it wasn’t that at first. Even before the catering company, she tried to make a name for herself on Wall Street, which was a boy’s game. Something reiterated throughout the documentary is that people hated Martha because of her attitude, but if she were a man, people would have simply seen her as a normal businessman.

And of course the documentary tracks her company’s monumental rise, but also it’s historic fall when Martha is caught doing insider trading with her stocks. I’m not surprised that this happened—can you imagine how many rich people probably get away with this on a daily basis? I also didn’t believe when she said she didn’t do it and knew nothing. She knew.

That kickstarted her prison era, which is how we get to the modern day Martha Stewart. Something to note about this documentary though is that it is directly interviewing Martha and people who knew her, so even when she’s accusing her former husband of doing certain things, she dodges questions about her own actions. It’s a biased take in some ways, and you need to be able to think critically about it.

Overall Thoughts

I found this documentary to be pretty comprehensive on Martha’s career. It could’ve been cut and dry if it focused on her business or early days, but by focusing on everything it was more interesting to me. I think other people might be interested in certain parts of her life and career, but this was fine for me starting out on Martha Stewart.

Again, it was definitely biased and skewered. I remember right before this I was Googling something about her and it said her former husband was slamming this documentary and how it was depicted. I am not surprised from the statements she made about him, then how she was dodging talking about how she had an affair first.

All in all, Martha Stewart would not be demonized as much if she were a man. That’s obvious to me from watching this—she had a strong personality, and no men should be like that either, but she was criticized because she was a woman.

Anyways, watch this if you’re interested. It’s a fun one!

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