--- title: "Stories We Tell" year: 2012 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/stories-we-tell" fi1m_score: 77 critics_score: 72 critics_reviews: 18 published: "2026-09-17T05:16:50.293200+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T05:17:26.518443+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Stories We Tell (2012) Directed by Sarah Polley · 1h 49m · MPA PG-13 · Documentary **Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 72 from 18 reviews *In a sentence:* A dozen people, one mother, and no two of them remember the same woman > Sarah Polley turns the camera on her own family and asks them to tell her the story of her mother, and they all tell it differently. It is warm, sly and moving; it also keeps explaining its own cleverness after we have understood it. ## Synopsis In Toronto, the director Sarah Polley asks her family to tell, one by one and from the beginning, the story of her mother, Diane Polley, an actress and casting director who died when Sarah was eleven. Her father, Michael Polley, has written his own account and reads it in a recording booth while his daughter directs from behind the glass. Her siblings Mark Polley, Joanna Polley, John Buchan and Susy Buchan tell it their own way, as do Diane’s friends. Grainy Super 8 footage shows Diane dancing and laughing. Two things recur: a family joke that Sarah looks nothing like her father, and a winter Diane spent in Montreal doing a play, which nobody remembers the same way. ## Review Sarah Polley was a child actor for years before she directed *Away from Her* (2006) and *Take This Waltz* (2011), so she knows what a camera does to people asked to be themselves in front of it. In *Stories We Tell* she points one at her own family. Her father, her brothers and sisters, and a handful of her late mother’s friends are each asked to tell, from the beginning and in full, the story of Diane Polley, an actress and casting director in Toronto who died when Sarah was eleven. No two of them tell it the same way. That is the film, and for most of its 109 minutes it is a warm, sly and unusually honest one. Michael Polley is the anchor. He has written the story down himself, and his daughter puts him in a recording booth to read it, then interrupts from the other side of the glass to ask for a line again. He does the line again. He is English, dry and unhurried, and he reads passages about his own marriage that a vainer man would have cut, with a courtesy that never once asks for our sympathy. It moved us more than we were ready for, watching a man let his daughter direct the hardest chapter of his life and ask only whether the reading was any good. Around him sit the others, in their own kitchens and sitting rooms. Mark Polley, Joanna Polley, John Buchan and Susy Buchan overlap, correct one another and now and then flatly disagree, and Mike Munn cuts them so that a memory begun by one is finished by another who remembers it the other way round. Harry Gulkin, who knew Diane from her time in Montreal, tells his part slowly, and it belongs to the second half. The first hour is built on a family joke, that Sarah looks nothing like her father, and on a winter Diane spent in Montreal doing a play. Everyone remembers the joke. Nobody agrees on the winter. Iris Ng shoots the interviews plainly, in daylight, and lets the family’s old reels do the rest: grainy Super 8 of Diane laughing at whoever is holding the camera, dancing, lighting a cigarette. Some of it is not family footage. Polley has staged scenes with actors on the same stock, and Lea Carlson dresses them so that 1970s Toronto and Montreal look like anyone’s shoebox of reels. For a long stretch we could not tell which was which, and the film knows it, and before the end it says so. Some will call that a cheat. We thought it fair, because the film’s whole case is that a remembered life is largely made up afterwards, and here is some of it being made up in front of us. Jonathan Goldsmith’s score, mostly piano, is quiet and knows when to stop. The trouble is the last twenty minutes. Having shown us that everyone remembers differently and let us feel it, the film starts to say it out loud. Storytellers are asked what they think of the project. Polley is heard explaining why she made it. One of them argues, at length, about who the story belongs to. The point had landed an hour earlier, and we felt the film tap us on the shoulder to check we had understood. We had. Polley also keeps herself mostly off screen, a voice asking questions, which is a modest choice and a costly one, because the person with the most at stake is the one we come to know least. Diane herself stays a bright blur, which may be the truth of her and is also a little frustrating. Family documentaries usually have someone to blame. This one does not. Nobody in it is angry, and nobody is asked to be, which speaks either to a remarkable family or to what was left in the edit; we suspect a bit of both. It sits well beside Polley’s own *Away from Her*, which was also about a marriage and what memory does to it, and this is the warmer of the two. See it with a sibling, and count how many times one of you says that is not how it happened. It runs 109 minutes and carries a 12A. *Fi1m score 77, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Stories We Tell, and the praise gathers in one place: the way Sarah Polley turns her own family’s secret, and her mother’s charismatic, half-hidden life, into a film about how memory works. The interviews with siblings, friends and her father are singled out repeatedly, as is the reconstructed Super 8 footage that most reviewers find inventive rather than cheating. Several call it tender and funny, one or two note it plays like a thriller, and the general view is that Polley handles painful material without exploiting anyone. The reservations cluster around the framing. A few critics wonder whether the self-conscious business about documentary truth is needed when the personal story carries itself, and one finds the ending slightly off-message. Screen Daily thinks it loses focus at times. The Telegraph is the lone dissenter, arguing the film reveals little and that its much-discussed ambiguity never arrives. Otherwise the spread is narrow, with most reviews warm rather than ecstatic. ### Reviews we read (18) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an invigorating powerhouse that is adventurous and fascinating. He singles out its exploration of truth, secrecy, memory, and family relationships as it peels back layers like an onion. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-stories-we-tell-review-20130517-story.html) - **The Times**, Kate Muir (90/100, inferred): Polley’s film is a fearless dumping out of the family closet as she exposes her charismatic mother’s secret life. The result is a resounding success, entangling the audience in the family’s emotions through interviews, narration and carefully edited footage. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/article/stories-we-tell-jgs2hgbblsv) - **Little White Lies**, Adam Woodward (5/4/3): Polley delivers a bittersweet and compelling autobiographical family portrait through interviews and faux-home movie footage. The critic praises its tender, candid exploration of truth and memory while noting it strays slightly off-message in the conclusion. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/stories-we-tell) - **Time Out**, Cath Clarke (4/5): This beautiful and funny documentary explores how families tell stories differently, with everyone remembering events in their own way. The critic highlights the thriller-like twists and the engaging way Polley lets family and friends recount her mother's story. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/stories-we-tell) - **The Independent**, Jonathan Romney (75/100, inferred): The film is a subtle and complex personal investigation into family secrets and the reconstruction of the mother’s charismatic character. It succeeds as a feminist tribute and process of therapy despite some elaborate fakery. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/jonathan-romney-on-stories-we-tell-just-look-into-my-camera-and-tell-the-whole-truth-8679750.html) - **Evening Standard** (70/100, inferred): Polley’s documentary blends real interviews and fabricated Super-8 footage to explore the need to tell and own stories about infidelity and family. It avoids pure narcissism by emphasizing the creative act of storytelling itself. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/stories-we-tell-film-review-8677946.html) - **Sight and Sound**, Sophie Mayer (70/100, inferred): Polley revisits her mother and knotty family in this richly reflexive documentary that embraces feminist cinematic heritage. The critic singles out the innovative reconstructed Super 8 footage and the film's knowing reflexivity for praise. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-stories-we-tell) - **Slant Magazine**, Nick McCarthy (70/100, inferred): Polley crafts a multi-perspective documentary about her family's secrets and her mother's life that prioritizes the slipperiness of memory over straightforward narrative. The critic highlights the film's success in capturing family dynamics through interviews, home movies, and self-reflexive techniques. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/stories-we-tell/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The film is a tender, painful, intimate portrait of Polley's parents and a complex labour of love. It mixes genuine and reconstructed footage to explore the unreliability of memory while revealing more about the director herself than she may have realised. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/27/stories-we-tell-review) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (70/100, inferred): The critic notes the film’s dazzling poise between obfuscation and epiphany in examining family stories and secrets. He singles out Polley’s artful use of old footage and interrogation of the confessional mode. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/only-human-3) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (Critic’s Pick): The critic finds the documentary quietly moving and intelligent as Polley gathers family recollections about her late mother. She singles out the way the film examines how memories and stories shape personal history. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/movies/stories-we-tell-written-and-directed-by-sarah-polley.html) - **Vulture**, David Edelstein (70/100, inferred): Polley’s meta-documentary about her mother’s possible affair and family storytelling is engaging and heartfelt, with strong home-movie footage and multiple perspectives that ultimately align on the facts. The critic praises the personal story but questions whether the self-conscious framing about documentary truth was necessary. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2013/05/movie-review-stories-we-tell-sarah-polley.html) - **Screen Daily** (50/100, inferred): Polley's tender and thoughtful documentary offers a candid portrait of family secrets and the ownership of memory through interviews, home movies and reconstructions. The critic praises the father's memoir narration but notes it lacks focus at times and feels uncertain about its purpose. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/stories-we-tell/5045826.article) - **The Telegraph** (40/100, inferred): Polley takes a sledgehammer to the family crypt in this cine-memoir but reveals disappointingly little. The film shifts focus to her biological roots and attempts a broader discussion about history and memory, but the much-vaunted ambiguity never materialises. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/10146276/Stories-We-Tell-review.html) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (9/10): The critic praises Polley's thoughtful documentary for its complex exploration of truth, memory, and family stories through multiple perspectives. He singles out the film's mature handling of a personal family secret and its refusal to exploit or sensationalize the material. [Read](https://collider.com/stories-we-tell-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): Polley probes family relationships, memory, fact versus fiction, and directorial control through her parents' stories and home movies. The work conveys raw emotion and the impact of revealing personal secrets. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/stories-we-tell-2012-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **HeyUGuys**, Jamie Neish (4/5): Polley crafts a warm, layered personal documentary about her mother's life and family secrets through interviews, footage, and reconstructions. It feels like narrative cinema while exploring universal themes of storytelling and memory without bitterness. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/eiff-2013-stories-we-tell-review/) - **The Skinny**, Jamie Dunn (★★★): Polley’s documentary deconstructs the form with talking heads and archive footage while exploring the elusiveness of memory. The formal trickery does not dampen the emotional heft of this touching love letter from a daughter to her mother. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/stories-we-tell) ## Details - **Director:** Sarah Polley - **Director:** Sarah Polley - **Writer:** Sarah Polley - **Cinematography:** Iris Ng - **Editor:** Mike Munn - **Music:** Jonathan Goldsmith - **Production design:** Lea Carlson - **Producer:** Anita Lee, Sonia Hosko - **Cast:** Michael Polley as Storyteller; Harry Gulkin as Storyteller; Susy Buchan as Storyteller; John Buchan as Storyteller; Mark Polley as Storyteller; Joanna Polley as Storyteller; Cathy Gulkin as Storyteller; Marie Murphy as Storyteller - **Runtime:** 1h 49m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 17 May 2013 - **Genres:** Documentary ## Where to watch in the US - Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $5.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $5.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AU, CA, GB, IE, IL, IT, NZ, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Dick Johnson Is Dead* (2020): A daughter films her father and stages his death, repeatedly, with his cheerful consent. - *The Arbor* (2010): Actors lip-sync real interviews about a Bradford playwright; the same trick, harder and colder. - *The Beaches of Agnès* (2008): Varda rebuilds her own life on a beach with mirrors and admits which bits she invented. - *Nobody's Business* (1996): A son interrogates a father who would rather he did not; funnier and crosser than Polley. - *Away from Her* (2006): Polley’s first film, about a marriage and a wife who is forgetting it. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/stories-we-tell