This Machine News
2025 Realscreen Awards nominations unveiled
From captivating docs to must-see reality series and incredible talent, this year's lineup highlights the best in non-fiction and unscripted.
Martha Stewart’s Empire Monetized More Than Just Domesticity
A new documentary reminds us that the lifestyle guru was also selling the pleasure of mastery.
R.J. Cutler on 'Martha': Capturing an Icon's Rise, Fall, and Resilience
In this episode, Matthew sits down with acclaimed filmmaker R.J. Cutler to discuss his latest Netflix documentary, 'Martha'. Cutler offers fascinating insights into the making of the film, which chronicles the life and career of Martha Stewart, the iconic businesswoman and lifestyle guru.
Martha Stewart and When a Celeb Disavows Their Doc—With the Director!
Matt is joined by R.J. Cutler, director of the Netflix documentary Martha, as well as of the upcoming film Elton John: Never Too Late, to talk about Martha Stewart’s disapproval of the film, directors maintaining creative control over their projects, and the inherent and necessary struggle of collaborating with a major celebrity on a documentary.
Was Martha Stewart Really the Original Influencer?
“Martha,” a new documentary now on Netflix, offers a candid portrait of the rise and fall (and rebirth?) of the homemaker extraordinaire, who last year, at 81, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Filmmaker R.J. Cutler on Capturing Martha Stewart’s Rise for Netflix Docu: ‘Her Story Has So Much to Say About American Womanhood’
Director-producer of 'Martha' responds to Stewart's harsh words about the film: 'It takes a tremendous amount of courage to trust someone to tell your story'
Hollywood Music in Media Awards Nominations
Among the nominees are such hitmakers and composers as Elton John and Brandi Carlile, Miley Cyrus, Diane Warren, Pharrell Williams, A.R. Rahman and Linda Perry, among others.
So what if Martha Stewart is a perfectionist control freak?
In the new Netflix documentary “Martha,” her relentless drive becomes her most endearing characteristic.
Ron Howard’s World Series doc for Apple takes cinematic approach
The 2024 World Series doc will air on Apple TV+, in partnership with MLB and Imagine Entertainment. Yankees legend Derek Jeter is an executive producer via his production company, Cap 2 Productions. R.J. Cutler, who heads This Machine Filmworks, is the director.
A Prickly Martha Stewart Makes for a Bracing Netflix Portrait
The re-evaluation of maligned celebrities — especially women who reached the height of fame in the 1990s — has become its own mini-genre of pop culture. Often the story tells a bigger tale: a culture bent on taking down successful women, or beautiful ones, or just ones who accidentally strayed into the spotlight.
Netflix’s New Martha Stewart Documentary Renders Her More Powerful Than Ever
When Martha Stewart eventually passes away, she should order that director R.J. Cutler also be buried along with her inside her death pyramid.
Top Docs: "Martha" with R.J. Cutler
In his highly engaging new Netflix documentary “Martha,” Emmy award-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler (“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry”, “Big Vape”) calls Martha Stewart the original influencer.
‘Martha’ Stokes a Debate: What’s a Documentary, Anyway?
As a vérité filmmaker for the past 31 years, Mr. Cutler has tackled a wide variety of subjects, from politics (“The World According to Dick Cheney”) to Vogue magazine (“The September Issue”) to e-cigarettes (“Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul”). He has been nominated for an Oscar. He has won three Emmys, including one for “American High,” a docuseries that tracked 14 high school students over a year.
"Martha" presents a side of Martha Stewart we haven't seen before: hers, in her voice
Under R.J. Cutler's direction, the influential icon tells her story honestly, albeit with a high-sheen polish.
‘Martha’ Review: R.J. Cutler’s Splendid Documentary Taps Into Everything We Love, and Don’t, About Martha Stewart
The film takes us through her rise and fall and rise, a transfixing saga enhanced by Cutler's ongoing meditation on The Meaning of Martha.
‘Martha’ Review: Martha Stewart Unplugged In Candid And Surprising Tell-All Netflix Documentary
When I set out to see R.J. Cutler‘s new documentary, Martha, quite frankly I wasn’t focusing on it other than just another screening I had, and that it would be all about Martha Stewart. So I expected it would be mostly gardening, cooking and setting the perfect dinner-party table.
Martha Stewart is an ‘unreliable narrator’ but also ‘a visionary,’ documentary director says
The way Martha Stewart sees it, her life story is pretty simple. “Here’s this girl from a family of eight in Nutley, N.J., living modestly, who gets a good idea, builds it into something really fine and profits from it,” she says in “Martha,” a documentary premiering Wednesday on Netflix. Then, Stewart continues, she “falls in a hole” and has to climb out of it.
Martha Stewart’s American Dream
Let’s play a game: What do you think of when you think of Martha Stewart? Her unlikely friendship with Snoop Dogg? A pre-#tradwife trad wife? A daytime television personality who served jail time? Something else entirely?
R.J. Cutler Reveals Martha Stewart’s Strengths and Weaknesses and Elton John’s Vulnerability in Two Docs
Documentary filmmaker R.J. Cutler (“Billie Eilish: The World is a Little Blurry”) is enjoying a busy fall with two documentaries releasing back to back. Netflix is now streaming “Martha,” his searing and fascinating portrait of the lifestyle icon, and Disney+ will air his moving tribute “Elton John: Never Too Late” after its November 15 theatrical release.
In Netflix doc, Martha Stewart looks back at her triumphant highs, humiliating lows
Tracing her arc from model to stockbroker to author to TV personality to inmate, film comes close to achieving the level of perfection famously demanded by the lifestyle maven.