Mistaken for Strangers

Saw this at the premiere/National concert at the Shrine in LA on Tuesday 3/25/2014. This is the story of Matt Berninger, lead singer of the National's younger brother (by 9 years) Tom attempting (and succeeding) to make a documentary of the band on tour. It mostly plays out as a story of brotherly love & jealousy, but always with a good-natured and humorous bent. Tom is a goofy kid-stuck-in-a-man's-body who has a history of quitting things before he's finished them, and Matt seems determined to see him finish this project, even if it means risking the public perception of his band. The audience was in uproarious laughter throughout the whole thing, and everyone seemed surprised at what a genuine portrait it was of not only the band, but of how a regular family's dynamics change when one member is throw into the spotlight. Highly recommended.

Wow, this was not what I expected. I haven't laughed this hard at a documentary since Michael Moore stopped doing them. Briefly, it's loosely based on Matt Berninger's brother Tom's attempts to make a movie about the band.

I have to admit, I had to suppress my inner cynic at many points (who's doing all the filming of Tom? Who's idea was it to come on tour really? Is he really that thick??) but whoever came up with the idea of having Tom do this obviously had some idea what the results would be. I mean one meeting with Tom would have indicated that he would not be capable in pulling together some kind of coherent documentary. As they say, it takes a very smart person to act dumb. But then again some people are just dumb.

When Tom is behind the camera he is strangely reminiscent of Jack Black at his bratty best. He's disappointed that being on tour with a rock band is actually quite boring. He doesn't really have much interest in any band members other than his brother and he uses these conversations to try and understand his relationship with his brother a bit better. The most arresting scenes are when Matt loses it with Tom - they feel very real and you know you are watching that fraternal relationship that has a lot of history.

I love the National but, to be honest, that's of little consequence. Love them or hate them, you will laugh at this (very short) film.

Highly recommend this documentary. It is real and fresh and raw all at the same time. Taps into the human element with emotion and heart. One of the most real movies you may ever see. Don't take it too serious, you will be pleasantly surprised and delighted. Sibling rivalry and seeing how we don't measure up in our families from our parent's and siblings perspective is all confronted in this movie. You will laugh and cry for the characters, they explore how to live life and what is important in life. Very well worth your time. It makes you see the glamorous and drudgery of being in a successful band and what it takes to make it all happen. Ostensibly while looking at the band and its creative process we are given a beautiful look into the organic process of the brother and how he sabotages himself along the way and comes out the other end with a great movie as the result.

Mistaken for Strangers is a film that I saw back in early 2014 at the IFC Center in New York. But it's also one of those films I almost forgot I saw- not because I meant to, it just got shuffled briefly out of my memory so far as the title - but I but was extremely glad just now I found the title as the subject matter. You may not know who the Berninger brothers are before going in (or you'll probably know one of them more likely than not), but by the end they leave their mark due to their personalities and how they relate to each other and the world around them.

This is about a filmmaker brother (not a great one, but trying) who follows around his up-n-coming brother musician, who leads the band The National (you may/may not have heard them, big hit singles) while he's promoting a new album and playing concerts. Oh, and there are some incidents that make things awkward, weird and at times it's just a matter of this guy Tom Berninger messing up while kind of 'attached' with this band. Does he know what kind of movie he's making? Does he tell the band? What happens if this all falls apart and he goes back to making schlocky horror movies? Now there's stakes here - at one point the National is even involved at an event with the POTUS (that's an intense, kind of hysterical scene as I recall).

So really, it's about this band The National, but only in the secondary sense. It's much more of a self-portrait, what it means if you keep mucking up your own work and getting in the way of doing what you know you can do creatively (this happens more than once, sometimes just due to the Party-of-One mentality Tom has). But in the light of this guy and his brother - a man who Tom looks up to, but also isn't sure he can really live up to in the sense of creative engagement. Can he make this a great movie? We're along for the ride either way, and it's a funny, affecting, and honest on all sides kind of experience. Charming, even.

It was supposed to be a documentary about a band called The National, but it turned out to be a documentary about an amateur filmmaker's struggle making a documentary about a band called The National. The filmmaker, Tom Berringer, is the lead singer's younger brother, and he was hired on as a roadie for the band. Tom expresses feelings of insecurity living in the shadow of his more successful brother, so it's not surprising that the movie was about Tom with incidental shots of the band. To be fair, it would be difficult to find enough interesting material about a well-mannered band like The Nationals to fill a two-hour movie. The film was self-indulgent, but it was amusing, nonetheless.