96% Stories We Tell

All Critics (67) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (3)

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.

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.

Stories We Tell is just the latest reminder of nonfiction film's current, endlessly innovative state. That's a story worth savoring.

It's a relationship drama spanning three decades, a detective mystery, an essay on the nature of memory, and a critique of our need to process messy human life into streamlined narrative arcs even at the cost of oversimplifying.

The great conceit of Polley's theories of perspective and truth is that she, as director, ultimately controlled everyone's memories because she arranged them on film.

As with her other films, when Sarah Polley takes it upon herself to tell us a story, you can bet it's a tale well-told and one that you'll want to hear.

What Stories We Tell does so brilliantly is both tell the story and tell about how we tell our stories. The truth may not be out there.

This is a warm, brave and thought-provoking piece of autobiography.

Stories We Tell shows us that the truth and the way its told are two very different things. Polley's wonderful documentary honors both by preferring neither.

I could not love it more.

As one watches it, certain questions may arise. But don't worry - the answers are fascinating.

While I can understand any reluctance to view the personal business of others, Polley moves beyond the routine of therapy to shape an expressive and beautifully considerate documentary.

With Stories We Tell, actress-turned-director Sarah Polley has proven herself a consummate filmmaker, transforming an incredible personal story into a playful and profound investigation into the nature of storytelling itself.

Eventually, the formalistic strictures of the documentary fall away and Polley - her entire family, really - is left facing the reality of the past as the cameras roll.

Polley imaginatively fills in the past through a hybrid of documentary and fiction [for] knowing relevance to oral history, testimonial evidence, and what makes a family.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stories_we_tell/

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