“Martha” (2024) Review

Homemaking diva is perhaps the best way to describe Martha Stewart. While some women grew powerful and controlling with their modeling, singing, or acting, Martha wielded her influence over the kitchen and garden. Her presence on television was so gentle that her more vicious nature with perception whiplash as hard as Bob Saget’s comedy. As this documentary reveals, her life was far more than the good things she composed, cooked, and baked for TV.

Appearing in this documentary amid her maintained estate, Martha Stewart divulges her philosophy of filling voids. It’s understandable considering the history she came from. Her father was a bigot who beat her, and her husband was a man who cheated on her (Martha cheated as well, but argues it was only one brief fling). Modeling got her some places, but homemaking became her television niche. She became an influential figure with her astounding ability to create the most lavish displays of decor and food. Her instructional format was meant to give hope for women that they could also weave such creations. Her success ballooned to such a degree that many started questioning if Martha’s elaborate cakes were a standard too high for some women to aspire towards. When others argued that some women would not be able to make these cakes, Martha retorted, “But they could.”

This documentary is more fascinating for refusing to shy away from the non-good things in Martha’s life. Her diary entries towards her cheating husband were brutal admissions of bitterness. Her strong words towards her assistants are revealed in the kitchen. So many topics seem like tough territory to probe that the director has to keep pushing for honesty. He has likely seen Martha’s interview on The Today Show where she came to make a salad but was asked about her insider trading scandal. Despite the interviewer’s plea for comment, Martha bitterly remarked, “I just want to make my salad.” It’s for this reason why Martha appears most present before the camera while family, journalists, and friends remain in voice-over to tell their perspective on the situation. Thankfully, Martha was not nearly as cagey as expected from this format. She holds little back, as when speaking about reporter Andrea Peyser, who smeared her during her courtroom trial. “She’s dead now, thank goodness,” remarks Martha. Those are some cold words. They’re even colder given the fact that Andrea Peyser is not dead. She’s still a New York Post columnist and responded to this documentary by writing, “I’m alive, bitch!”

Another area explored in greater detail was Stewart’s prison time after being found guilty for insider trading. Although her innocence is questioned with her lies to the FBI, the notion of her being punished as one of the few successful, rich women in the world does hold some credence. But while Martha served her time in prison, her drive to fill voids continued. As outlined in her journal entries, she made friends with the inmates and kept her skills sharp. She would be released from prison and went right back to the TV home where she was most comfortable, though it took a lukewarm variety show and profanity-filled comedy roast to lead down a more fulfilling path with Snoop Dogg. The TV homemaker had evolved into a sexy grandma and queen bitch of the homemaking arts, loving it up.

There’s a refreshing dose of diva divulgence in the Martha Stewart documentary. Although she does come off like a control freak, she also has a vigor that is hard to ignore. Even with her current status as an icon hanging out with a rapper and living it up on social media, she’s still working on her garden with many ideas and details. As she states while walking her grounds, grow a garden if you want to be happy forever. Considering how briefly she highlights happiness for getting drunk (a day) and marriage (a year), gardening is probably the best option for controlling a maven of all things homemaking.