Stories We Tell 2012

Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine: Tthe probing, emotionally devastating documentary that was, for this critic and many others, the revelation of the first week of the Venice Film Festival." Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: "Stories We Tell" has a number of transparent virtues, including its humor and formal design, although its most admirable quality is the deep sense of personal ethics that frames Ms. Polley's filmmaking choices. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Polley has gone meta-exuberantly, entertainingly, with all her heart. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: 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. Read more

Guy Lodge, Variety: This playful and elegiac documentary is wholly of a piece with Sarah Polley's fiction work, and just as rewarding. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: An investigative mystery, a real-life soap opera, and-most compellingly, perhaps-a searching "interrogation" (the director's word) of the hows and whys of storytelling itself. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: What a great movie. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Even calling ''Stories We Tell'' a documentary seems rather limiting and not entirely accurate; it's also a deadpan comedy, a juicy melodrama and a gripping mystery, all cleverly blended together with great focus. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Stories We Tell is one of those movies you watch on a screen and replay in your head for days, moving between its many levels of inquiry and touched, always, by Polley's compassion toward her relatives in particular and people in general. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Sarah might have wrapped up this documentary after her parentage is revealed about 70 minutes in, yet it continues for another 50 as she ruminates over the tale,... her engrossing personal story gradually devolving into an exercise in self-regard. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Sarah Polley's remarkable Stories We Tell transcends every cliche in this confessional/investigatory genre, and it's one of the year's highlights. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Polley was right to follow her instincts, though, in not attempting to tie everything up. She recognizes that family histories are necessarily contradictory, crazymaking, and essentially unfathomable. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Stories We Tell is just the latest reminder of nonfiction film's current, endlessly innovative state. That's a story worth savoring. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Never sentimental, never cold and never completely sure of anything, Polley comes across as a woman caught in wonder. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Takes the proposition that reality is more dramatic than fiction and tests it out in a startlingly original, even head-spinning way. Read more

Amanda Mae Meyncke, Film.com: [Stories We Tell] leaves you wondering about the nature of truth and wanting to know more about the hidden lives of those around us. Read more

Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter: Canadian documentary skilfully deploys some ambitious creative gambits to explore the director's own family background. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Don't be fooled by its deceptively simple title or the hesitant, unassuming way it begins. Writer-director Sarah Polley's "Stories We Tell" ends up an invigorating powerhouse of a personal documentary, adventurous and absolutely fascinating. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: Stories We Tell is not just very moving; it is an exploration of truth and fiction that will stay with you long after repeated viewings. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: A fascinating variant on the documentary form that examines what we see, and how we see it. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Sarah Polley's documentary is a startling mixture of private memoir, public inquiry, and conjuring trick. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Polley is a good filmmaker but in the end, "Stories We Tell" feels less like a film than a family album - and one best appreciated, not by us, but by the Polleys still to come. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: An exercise in family navel-gazing becomes something more meta - less about the stories themselves than about the often uproarious ways in which people tell stories. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The film is a mystery uncovered like a detective story, wrapped in a love letter. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The fact that two of the principals - Sarah and Michael, who delivers touching and eloquent on-camera narration that he wrote himself - are accomplished actors adds another level of confusion and interest that help make this compelling storytelling. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: After you see it, you'll be practically exploding with questions - and with awe. Read more

Sheila O'Malley, Chicago Sun-Times: Stories told again and again have a way of neatening things up. Stories have a way of ironing out the wrinkles. Polley lets the wrinkles remain. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Don't let anyone spoil the surprises that unravel in this movie as Polley has her brilliant way with the elusiveness of truth. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "Stories We Tell" is two or maybe three dangerous kinds of movies all at the same time, and handled so brilliantly that the result is a transformative, unforgettable work of art. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: He opposite of a courageous piece of work, Stories We Tell goes out of its way to protect every single person it touches. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: If a personal memoir film by a beautiful, successful young woman from a nice Toronto family sounds to you like it can only be an excuse for self-absorbed navel-gazing, well, you must not have seen a Sarah Polley movie yet. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: 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. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: As one watches it, certain questions may arise. But don't worry - the answers are fascinating. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The film is oscillating from intriguing to dull, revealing to repetitious, frank to disingenuous, and moving to manipulative. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Sarah Polley's brave quest to uncover her family's deepest secrets unfolds like a thriller, one where the resolution is literally part of her DNA. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Everyone has a different story. I found myself holding my breath listening to them talk. The story twists like a thriller. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Polley has gone further into the thorny subject of forgiveness than any of her peers. Her movies ache with ethical quandary; Stories We Tell aches the most. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A brilliant, thought-provoking documentary. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Polley's documentary, Stories We Tell, attempts to unravel some of the mysteries of her own family's life, even as it stretches far beyond the confines of your standard navel-gazing autobiography. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: What unfolds is a riveting drama that grows even more so as it plays out. Read more