“Martha” (dir. R.J. Cutler, 2024)

Netflix is ramping up into awards season with one of its worthiest film slates of the year so far, a diverse group of exclusives that ranges from a Laura Dern rom-com to an Olivia Rodrigo tour doc and a historical epic scripted by Park Chan-wook. Most exciting of all are a pair of documentaries that played extremely well on the festival circuit: “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” which IndieWire will review later this month, and the warts-and-all Martha Stewart portrait “Martha,” which continues to prove that “Life’s a Little Blurry” director R.J. Cutler is one of the best in the business. Here’s a taste of Kate Erbland’s positive review from Telluride:

“There are plenty of voices in R.J. Cutler’s ‘Martha,’ the documentarian’s latest fascinating look at a cultural icon, but there is only one talking head who we actually see seated for an interview. Stewart, of course, who seems eager to tell her story — until she’s not — with Cutler smartly refusing to cut away when the wildly successful entrepreneur and convicted felon (Stewart is nothing if not complex) begins to balk, to noticeably grimace, at a line of questioning. Mostly, it seems like things are simply black and white to Stewart, except — of course — some of the finer details of her own life.

As Cutler holds on Stewart, she has to break the silence, giving just a smidge more away with each passing word. Consider a moment in the film‘s first act, as Stewart begins to unpack what led to the dissolution of her marriage to college sweetheart Andy Stewart: a defiant and clearly still very angry Martha initially offers some advice for the women out there, telling them if their husbands step out on them, leave them, full stop, and always regard them as the ‘piece of shit’ they are. But, Cutler implores, didn’t Martha cheat on Andy before he cheated on her? No!, Martha says. But Andy told the director that. Well, Martha shakes it off, that was different. Was it really? To Stewart, it was.”

Available to stream October 30

Other highlights:

– “Uprising” (10/11)
– “Woman of the Hour” (10/18)
– “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” (10/25)