Stories We Tell | Little White Lies

Sto­ries We Tell

28 Jun 2013 / Released: 28 Jun 2013

Words by Adam Woodward

Directed by Sarah Polley

Starring John Buchan, Mark Polley, and Michael Polley

A smiling woman with long blonde hair holding a microphone in a room with a TV and cluttered surfaces.
A smiling woman with long blonde hair holding a microphone in a room with a TV and cluttered surfaces.
3

Anticipation.

Take This Waltz director Sarah Polley tries her hand at documentary. This could be special.

5

Enjoyment.

A fearless, fascinating warts-and-all biography that doesn't miss a single emotional beat.

4

In Retrospect.

Despite straying slightly off-message in its concluding segment, there’s plenty here to warrant repeat viewings.

Direc­tor Sarah Pol­ley deliv­ers a bit­ter­sweet and com­pelling auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal fam­i­ly portrait.

Great sto­ries have a way of stay­ing with us. Some, over time, may even take on a life of their own. So it proves in Sarah Polley’s sub­lime cine-mem­oir Sto­ries We Tell, a ten­der, can­did and thrilling explo­ration of truth, mem­o­ry and the nature of perspective.

Com­prised of faux-home movie Super 8 footage and first-hand inter­views with a selec­tion of close fam­i­ly and friends, Pol­ley con­structs a self-indul­gent­ly per­son­al yet authen­ti­cal­ly engag­ing por­trait of the com­plex rela­tion­ship that has in no small part shaped Polley’s iden­ti­ty. To say any­thing more would be to spoil the expe­ri­ence of see­ing the unique­ly rev­e­la­to­ry dra­ma unfold. In fact, we strong­ly advise you go in with a lit­tle pri­or knowl­edge of the film’s sub­ject as possible.

Though some will see this as a change of pace from Pol­ley, there are cer­tain par­al­lels between this and the writer/director’s pre­vi­ous fea­tures Away From Her and Take This Waltz, the lat­ter in par­tic­u­lar shares the same self-reflex­ive obser­va­tions on every­day inti­ma­cy. The major dif­fer­ence is that this is specif­i­cal­ly film as ther­a­py, and while there’s an argu­ment to be had over Polley’s readi­ness to exploit her own flesh and blood for artis­tic mer­it, it’s impor­tant to note that she lays her­self bare more so than any­one who appears in the film.

Of course, as direc­tor Pol­ley is ful­ly licensed to refract the var­i­ous tes­ti­monies she col­lates through her own prism of cathar­sis, though if any­thing this serves to stim­u­late deep­er reeval­u­a­tion of the sto­ries that shape and define us.

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