Stories We Tell
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: May 10, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 25, 2013
Sarah Polley’s 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 full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 18, 2013
A great storyteller, however, is one who can entertain an audience in the moment -- but who also gives them something to think about, something for them to take home with them when the story ends, which is exactly what Polley does in Stories We Tell. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 3, 2013
In the end, I was nagged by a question posed by Polley’s sister Joanna in the film’s opening minutes. “I guess I have this instinctive reaction: who cares about our ----ing family?” The answer, of course, is Polley herself, who smilingly tells us that a story like hers can never truly be tied down, even as she screws every last piece into place. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJun 29, 2013
Everyone has a different story. I found myself holding my breath listening to them talk. The story twists like a thriller. Read full review
100
EmpireDan JolinJun 24, 2013
Polley’s fearless personal journey is a huge achievement, a genuine revelation — but the less detail you know beforehand, the better. Go in cold, come out warmed. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyJun 15, 2013
Amazing stories. Heart- tweaking, brain-teasing and hugely enjoyable, Polley’s tangled memoir confirms her as an unflinching anatomist of secrets and lies. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 12, 2013
Plenty of secrets are uncovered before the fadeout, plus another nugget dropped midway through the end credits that may render nearly everything beforehand to be false. That's the nature of intimacies submerged so long then revealed. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 6, 2013
A powerful and thoughtful film, it is also not what it at first seems, which is part of the point Polley appears to be interested in making. Can the truth ever actually be known about anything? Read full review
100
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 6, 2013
What a great movie. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 5, 2013
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. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 30, 2013
When a film like Stories We Tell comes along, you're reminded how powerful and universal even the most intimate and individual lives can be when captured with intelligence and perspective. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMay 30, 2013
This is the kind of film that benefits from being experienced with as little prior knowledge as possible. As one watches it, certain questions may arise. But don’t worry — the answers are fascinating. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 21, 2013
Seldom has our modern taste for the confessional mode been so smartly explored. [20 May 2013, p. 123]
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 17, 2013
The Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley set out to make a straightforward documentary about her mother, Diane, who died when she was 11, but by the time Stories We Tell was finished five years later, it had become unclassifiable. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 16, 2013
Sarah Polley's memoir is a poignant, funny and engrossing film, challenging our notions of memory and family mythology. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 16, 2013
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 full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 16, 2013
With its ingenious structure, seamless visual conceits and mordant humor, Stories We Tell is a masterful film on technical and aesthetic values alone. But because of the wisdom and compassion of its maker, it rises to another level entirely. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 16, 2013
An invigorating powerhouse of a personal documentary, adventurous and absolutely fascinating. Read full review
100
NPRBob MondelloMay 10, 2013
Seriously, one of the most jaw-dropping revelations occurs halfway through the final credits. All of which makes the stories Sarah Polley tells in Stories We Tell an enormously intriguing lot. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickMay 9, 2013
The various witnesses tell contradictory tales that turn this into a real-life “Rashomon." 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 full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisMay 9, 2013
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 full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 9, 2013
The film is a mystery uncovered like a detective story, wrapped in a love letter. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 9, 2013
The result, with its flashing perspectives and stealthy wit, is unique and unforgettable. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 8, 2013
Polley’s fledgling foray into documentary filmmaking is also 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 full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMay 8, 2013
By the end, the rug gets pulled out from under us, showing that even the reality we think we see may be an illusion. Read full review
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekMay 7, 2013
This wondrous, absorbing little picture covers a great deal of winding meta-territory, reflecting on the ways in which a single family's story can be told—or maybe, more accurately, examining the idea that there's no such thing as a "single story." Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 7, 2013
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 full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 5, 2013
So Polley has gone meta — exuberantly, entertainingly, with all her heart. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 5, 2013
The alternately playful and elegiac Stories We Tell is wholly of a piece with her fiction work, and just as rewarding. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 26, 2013
It goes on too long, but this is personal essay filmmaking at its best, one that passes that ultimate test of such self-involved projects. It has a story worth telling. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineNick McCarthyMar 18, 2013
Sarah Polley is much more interested in the malleability of memory and the consequential refractions felt throughout her kin rather than telling a linear narrative. Read full review
91
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMar 7, 2013
Fans of Polley’s work to date will be delighted by a documentary that serves simultaneously as a gripping mystery, a moving record of a family and a fascinating investigation into the nature of truth, memory, and the documentary form itself. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungMar 7, 2013
This playfully complex and gently slippery analysis of memory and personal narrative manages to engage us in what's essentially the private business, some might even say the dirty laundry, of total strangers. Read full review
75
Film.comAmanda May MeynckeMar 7, 2013
This funny and touching film could do with a bit of editing. It tends to drag a bit, especially near the end, and though we’re privy to the thoughts and feelings of Polley’s family, we’re given scant verbalized insight into her own thinking. Read full review
100
IndieWireEric KohnMar 7, 2013
Stories We Tell marks the finest of Polley's filmmaking skills by blending intimacy and intrigue to remarkable effect. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 7, 2013
Polley tackles painful issues with candour and tact. She has a gripping tale to tell. It's a film that raises questions about the ownership of memory and ownership of narrative. Read full review
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