Mistaken for Strangers (2013) starring Tom Berninger, Matt Berninger, Bryce Dessner directed by Tom Berninger Movie Review

Mistaken for Strangers (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5

Certificate

15

Length

75 mins

Genre

Director


Tom Berninger in Mistaken for Strangers (2013)

A Band of Brothers

As indie rock band The National are about to embark on their biggest tour lead singer Matt Berninger invites his younger brother Tom to join the tour as part of the crew. Tom, who still lives in Cincinnati with their parents and is in his own words a budding horror movie maker and heavy metal fan agrees and takes his camera with him to document the year long experience. Tom's dislike of indie music coupled with his immature attitude and lack of tour experience bring up plenty of issues but also brings to head Tom's feelings of being in his brother's shadows.

So first let me just say I have never head of indie band The National and to my knowledge never heard one of their songs. Now you don't need to know the band to watch "Mistaken for Strangers" as this is just a rockumentary which could really be about any band as the focus is less on The National but more on Tom, his inexperience, his immaturity and his issues of being in his more talented brother's shadows. Secondly in my younger days I helped roadie for some small local bands and remember quite well the crawling around checking wiring, the noise of people chatting as the base player is checking his levels and so on. I say that as it means my experience of the movie will be different to others.

Matt Berninger in Mistaken for Strangers (2013)

So how do I feel about "Mistaken for Strangers"? Well good and bad as like with many of these documentary style movies I found "Mistaken for Strangers" struggling to hold my attention with all the observation of day to day stuff. Maybe it is because I saw the other side of doing gigs that this side of things whilst doing a good job of reminding me what it was like didn't do a great deal for me.

But then there is the entertaining side to "Mistaken for Strangers" and that is its focus on Tom and his immaturity, the comical side of the movie. We see this through some cliche aspects such as he still lives at home with his parents but we also see it through the questions he asks the band such as asking the guitar player "how fast can you play". But we also see how Tom is by the way the others treat him with a scene where the producer wants to make sure he knows where Tom is during a gig so he doesn't make things up. It is this side along side some humour such as using a boot as a hammer which actually makes "Mistaken for Strangers" surprisingly enjoyable.

What this all boils down to is that there are aspects to "Mistaken for Strangers" which are just typical and unless you like these documentary movies will bore you. But at the same time it also has a really interesting side when it comes to Tom and his attitude, his level of maturity and being in his brother's shadow.


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