Stories We Tell (2012)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.