Repost: Stories We Tell (September 5th and 8th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[STORIES WE TELL screens Thursday September 5th at 9:05 pm and Sunday September 8th at 6:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Every family has its secrets. Very few of them make a feature length documentary about them and release it for viewing by the general public. That's what actress/director Sarah Polley has done with STORIES WE TELL, though. You'll probably feel a bit like a voyeur watching as Sarah has all the surviving members of her family and pertinent family friends recount “The Story” about her mother Diane, but like any true voyeur you won't be able to turn your eyes away.

The goal Polley is after here, or at least the one she says she's after, is to show how ever person has their own version of the truth that they tell, and each version has similarities and differences. No one is necessarily lying; we all just remember things differently, and especially with the passage of time our stories can undergo subtle changes from the reality they represent. One of the more important interview subjects, Harry Gulkin, disagrees with the filmmaker. He believes there is a definitive truth that can be told, or at least something close to it, but that only those who were directly involved can and should tell it.

Stories We Tell (Opens in Cleveland May 31st exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[STORIES WE TELL opens in Cleveland on Friday May 31st exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Every family has its secrets. Very few of them make a feature length documentary about them and release it for viewing by the general public. That's what actress/director Sarah Polley has done with STORIES WE TELL, though. You'll probably feel a bit like a voyeur watching as Sarah has all the surviving members of her family and pertinent family friends recount “The Story” about her mother Diane, but like any true voyeur you won't be able to turn your eyes away.

The goal Polley is after here, or at least the one she says she's after, is to show how ever person has their own version of the truth that they tell, and each version has similarities and differences. No one is necessarily lying; we all just remember things differently, and especially with the passage of time our stories can undergo subtle changes from the reality they represent. One of the more important interview subjects, Harry Gulkin, disagrees with the filmmaker. He believes there is a definitive truth that can be told, or at least something close to it, but that only those who were directly involved can and should tell it.

Take This Waltz (opeing in Cleveland July 20th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[TAKE THIS WALTZ opens in Cleveland on Friday July 20th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

New love can be thrilling and passionate, but as one older but wiser woman says in Sarah Polley's dramedy TAKE THIS WALTZ, “new gets old.” However, logic and wisdom tend not to matter much to those freshly under the sway of amore.

While visiting a historical site, travel writer Margot (Michelle Williams) has a “meet cute” with Daniel (Luke Kirby), a handsome artist/rickshaw driver (yes, really, a rickshaw driver). On the plane home the two find themselves seated next to each other, and as they talk it soon becomes clear there's a romantic spark. As if this weren't indication enough of fate at work, it turns out the two actually live across the street from each other. There's just one giant obstacle preventing them from leaping headlong into romance: Margot is married.