Martha Stewart was one of the best things that happened in the late 20th and 21st centuries. Everybody’s grandma knows her. Her extraordinary life, from the start of her harsh home life to her upcoming on Wall Street, made her who she is today. Her ability to compete in the business world and her perfectionistic ability made her a role model for women at a young age. Throughout her life, Martha influenced modern ideas from the bland ’80s to the 2000s. She showed me how to concentrate on my home life and express myself in my home.
The cinematography of the Martha Stewart documentary was done beautifully. Instead of recreating the settings of her life, pictures, and notes followed the timeline of her life. This showed how documented her life was and how there was always someone around her. The camera would first start with her answering questions like a podcast and would transfer into pictures that gave the audience a new sense of views of her and her life throughout these pictures. The incorporation of her passions throughout her life is shown in Martha. Martha also shows the audience how her house represents her, including her huge garden and her beautifully done kitchen. The incorporation of her passions into the documentary makes the film a lot easier to understand.
Throughout the documentary, you tend to notice the casting — it’s all Martha and voiceovers. There is no cast except Martha. They produced the documentary this way because it made people focus on Martha and nobody else. Instead of casting the documentary, using clips or pictures instead, they are able to go deep into Martha’s life. This allows a deeper connection and a better sense of feeling to the documentary. However, I would have liked to see at least a few members of her life talking in the documentary instead of voice-overs.
During the documentary, Martha tends to wear whatever fits in for the occasion. When she’s gardening she likes to wear cooler-colored clothing and something more breathable. When she’s focusing on her business or during this documentary she tends to wear darker-colored and more elegant pieces. I also noticed when she works in her garden she tends to wear colors with the season, for example, in fall she was mostly wearing orange or brown in the documentary. When she was a stockbroker she wore darker clothing that fitted in at the time.
The script was amazing, and the writer made it so you would walk through a timeline of Martha Stewart’s life. You don’t start at the time when she was born. Instead, you start the documentary within her childhood struggles at home. Throughout the documentary, you notice how this impacted her life and controlled her. It also seemed the writers climaxed the documentary because, after her success, the writers added Martha Stewart’s downfall. I loved how well-written the script was. It made me want to keep watching.
The music during the scenes could have been better. It was just mellow jazz or upbeat jazz playing. The music wasn’t loud, and you could barely hear it during scenes that showed pictures. The music was introduced during dramatic scenes, which sometimes helped but mostly didn’t fit in. I would have enjoyed the documentary a little bit more if the music was better.
Overall, I enjoyed watching the documentary on Martha Stewart. I learned things I never knew about Martha Stewart and her struggles in life. It felt inviting to learn so much about Martha. There were small details I would change about the documentary but overall it was an amazing piece of film. I would recommend the documentary to anyone.
“Martha:” ★★★★☆
