If the money shot in a documentary comes when the subject gets so honest and personal that they begin to cry, director R.J. Cutler was in trouble when he began work on his Martha Stewart doc, “Martha.” That’s because his subject doesn’t show much inclination to get honest and personal, much less emotional.
That made things difficult for Cutler, the director of “The September Issue” and “The War Room,” who is also on the festival circuit this fall with “Elton John: Never Too Late.” The filmmaker is trying to craft a film about the rise, fall and redemption of an iconic American lifestyle maven, but finds that icon reluctant to play along with the fall and redemption parts of that storyline.