One of the best documentaries I've ever seen.

The hook is simple: director Sarah Polley is delving into the story of her mother who died of cancer in 1990 and how her life affected Sarah and the rest of her family. Then, the movie becomes about the way people tell these stories, questioning the validity of Sarah's work and basically pulling the rug from beneath the viewer. The fourth wall is constantly broken and Polley keeps tripping up your expectations right into the end credits, where there's yet another shocking revelation.

I think what moved me the most was the transparency of the whole project. Sarah's dad is both a character in the story and the narrator who spends a lot of his time in the film in a recording booth, which adds a whole new level of intimacy to the project. It never feels like an act of narcissism on Sarah's part to make this movie, even if she's worried it does: we see her bond with her family in such real ways that never feel unearned. It's an incredibly self-aware documentary in that Polley is openly questioning the ethics of how to tell a story like this in the first place, what she's leaving out, whose (usually contradicting) perspectives she can focus on, because after all, there is no one story of her mother, as she learns.

Everyone (except Magnus apparently) should find something to resonate with them in this film, if not Sarah's family story itself then the nature of how and why we tell our own family stories.

Just a remarkable, remarkable film.

A

He had his 2500th episode last Friday. So proud.

Did they go back and re-create every major moment of someone's life related to their mother? In 16mm?

Whatever, I think your one takeaway from the movie says everything about what you thought..

I realize I never posted any thoughts on this because I was distracted and busy in May, but I adore it. I have dug Sarah Polley since The Sweet Hereafter (which inspired a bit of a crush when I was 12 or 13), and I highly enjoyed her first two films as a director, but this is her crowning achievement to date and an absolute home run. It is so personal, yet so universal, too, which is a neat dynamic: it focuses on these very specific, very idiosyncratic personalities and their private lives and loves, but the ideas and themes--death, estrangement, longing, love, memory, regret--come through in an enormous way and have a bruising, then cathartic impact.

I bought the DVD a few days ago.

I would have bought the Blu-ray if they released one. But they didn't.

I am still a fan of owning music and films on physical media. I do not care if the world at large is moving toward digital downloads and online theft.