“I never look the other way,” she says, and thankfully neither does Cutler’s documentary.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 15, 2024

To its credit, it doesn't pull any punches on the tough side of her.

| Nov 13, 2024

“Martha” feels like a far more comprehensible key to Stewart — who has been the subject of speculation, fascination, jokes that turn cruel and plenty of schadenfreude — than half a century of media attention has managed to find.

| Nov 6, 2024

You don’t necessarily want to be her, but there’s something so compelling about watching her twist herself around to become this impossible-to-please empress of all she beholds.

| Nov 5, 2024

Martha Stewart is a very difficult subject and the filmmaker never really gets a handle on her.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 5, 2024

Through it all, Martha’s gonna do Martha. Love her or hate her, admire her or fear her, there’s no denying she’s one of a kind.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 3, 2024

If you still need convincing that Martha Stewart is a human being much like the rest of us, R.J. Cutler’s documentary Martha, streaming on Netflix, should do the trick.

| Nov 2, 2024

A warts-and-all portrait of the lifestyle mogul that somehow still manages to be a hagiography.

| Nov 1, 2024

Martha Stewart is the subject of this mostly engrossing documentary, a busy and often unvarnished film that should floor Martha aficionados and novices alike.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 31, 2024

Her imperfections — including her inability to accept them — are what make her most interesting.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 31, 2024

“Martha” tells a transfixing story, and part of what makes the film so compelling is the way Cutler spins Stewart’s biography into a meditation on The Meaning of Martha.

| Oct 30, 2024

Taking in “Martha” is as soothing as thumbing through the glossy pages of Living, with its parade of touched-up artfully arranged photographs interspersed with archival footage and illustrations serving as tasteful alternatives to reenactments.

| Oct 30, 2024

As the influencer extraordinaire, Stewart is never less than compelling. Martha is enjoyable as a truly American tale of rise, fall and rise again.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2024

Stewart’s impeccable instincts — and how successfully she has employed them — are too inherently fascinating a topic for “Martha” to ever truly bore.

| Oct 28, 2024

A very, very straightforward and linear documentary in which the actual revelations are limited more by your awareness than anything else. In lieu of revelations, though, what keeps Martha engaging is watching Cutler thrust and parry with his subject.

| Sep 1, 2024

Cutler’s film begins to peter out in its final moments (the forging of Stewart’s highly unexpected bond with Snoop Dogg could foster its own film), but the trip there is certainly fascinating. It’s a good thing.

| Original Score: B | Sep 1, 2024