Stories We Tell (2013)
Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 105
Fresh: 100 | Rotten: 5
In Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley plays with the documentary format to explore the nature of memory and storytelling, crafting a thoughtful, compelling narrative that unfolds like a mystery,
Average Rating: 8.9/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 3
In Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley plays with the documentary format to explore the nature of memory and storytelling, crafting a thoughtful, compelling narrative that unfolds like a mystery,
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 9,610
Movie Info
In this inspired, genre-twisting new film, Oscar (R)-nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who's telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets kept by a family of storytellers. She playfully interviews and interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day
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Cast
-
Michael Polley
Narrator, Storytelle... -
Harry Gulkin
Storyteller -
Susy Buchan
Storyteller -
John Buchan
Storyteller -
Mark Polley
Storyteller -
Joanna Polley
Storyteller -
Cathy Gulkin
Storyteller -
Marie Murphy
Storyteller -
Robert MacMillan
Storyteller -
Anne Tait
Storyteller -
Deirdre Bowen
Storyteller -
Victoria Mitchell
Storyteller -
Mort Ransen
Storyteller -
Geoffrey Bowes
Storyteller -
Tom Butler
Storyteller -
Pixie Bigelow
Storyteller -
Claire Walker
Storyteller -
Rebecca Jenkins
Diane Polley -
Peter Evans
Michael Polley -
Alex Hatz
Harry Gulkin
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Stories We Tell Trailer & Photos
All Critics (105) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (100) | Rotten (5) | DVD (1)
Everyone has a different story. I found myself holding my breath listening to them talk. The story twists like a thriller.
Top CriticStories We Tell is not just very moving; it is an exploration of truth and fiction that will stay with you long after repeated viewings.
Part of the movie's pleasure is how comfortable the "storytellers" are with their director; you get a sense of a complicated but tight-knit family, going along with Sarah's project because they love her.
What a great movie.
Never sentimental, never cold and never completely sure of anything, Polley comes across as a woman caught in wonder.
After you see it, you'll be practically exploding with questions - and with awe.
To her credit, Polley never attempts to deflect the painful truths that she unearths, leaving them raw and open for us to experience right along with her.
This is a hard-to-classify and very personal doco, a study of the stories families tell each other and the stories we tell ourselves, regardless of whether either are in any way 'true'.
Canadian actress/director Sarah Polley (Away from Her; Take This Waltz) presents an absorbing family history that is so ingeniously mounted it doubles as a wry commentary on the documentary form, examining our willingness to believe what we see.
Just when you think you know where it's heading and what it's emphasising... the film unexpectedly changes direction. It's so beautifully done.
An extraordinary work that is both an intellectual examination into the nature of how cinema represents reality as well as a deeply moving personal project.
There are many moments when I was moved to tears - when raw truths involving emotions, are delivered by family members in spontaneous, unrehearsed fashion. Polley has crafted a rare jewel of a film that reveals much about her own family
What is not in doubt is the raw emotion in this work - from Polley quivering with nervous energy as she watches her father read some of the more revelatory pieces of script - to the impact airing the family's dirty linen in public has on her siblings.
Fascinating personal documentary.
Slowly but surely Polley pieces together her own family's history to create a kind of cinematic narrative - complete with a twist straight from a soap opera.
An unconventional but wonderfully assembled exploration of how -- and why -- we tell stories, all wrapped in a closely guarded family secret.
Polley is savvy, using her talent as a director -- as a storyteller -- to give it universal appeal even though it's a very specific account.
Perhaps the most organic, transformative meeting of form and function I've seen this year.
Stories We Tell is cinema cutting to the profound truth of why we use narrative to make sense of the world.
For the most part, Polley's thoughts and feelings are pretty much absent, but the film makes some nice observations about memory and how it affects - yup - the stories we tell.
The movie isn't really about the Polley family: It's about memory, and loss, and forgiveness, and, through it all, hope. It'll knock you over.
What emerges is a fascinating and illuminating story, one that runs the gamut from intense joy to deep sadness and features a couple of surprising twists that take proceedings off in strange and unusual directions.
An honest and authentic documentary that powerfully explores the filmmaker's own family.
Polley's portrait of modern family life is a playfully profound discussion of narrative forms - the way in which we each construct our own reality through stories, part truth, part invention.
A decent piece of work, but too fussy for its own good.
Polley approaches every character with compassion, intent upon blessing them, and serving the audience with useful questions about how we seek the truth.
Audience Reviews for Stories We Tell
Super Reviewer
This has not been by choice or any reason in particular, but I have not seen too many documentaries so far this year. That said, I was fully willing to embrace a new film from director Sarah Polley, which happens to be a documentary about her family. My initial thought, upon learning about the nature of this documentary, had me wondering why a film like this would need be made, let alone why would it be compelling. It is somewhat surprising that Stories We Tell is as compelling as it is. I say "somewhat" because the film has near universal acclaim, so I would have, if anything, been more surprised to not have liked the film. The film is a documentary, no doubt, but it has a well thought out structure and presents a story with some turns balanced by the earnest nature of the people involved and the fact that they are very likable in their matter-of-fact presentation of the details.
read the whole review at thecodeiszeek.com
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September 2, 2013:
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May 14, 2013:
Sarah Polley Talks Stories We TellSome behind-the-scenes perspective on one of the year's most widely praised films.
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