Last year’s brilliant music documentary, ‘Made of Stone’, really could only have been fully appreciated by the fans of the band The Stone Roses. ‘Mistaken for Strangers’, documenting the world tour by the band The National, could not be more different. I am pretty ambivalent about their stuff but thoroughly enjoyed this film.
The success of the movie is down to the focus on the relationship between the lead singer, Matt Berninger, and Tom his younger brother. Tom has not made much of his life and has lived in the shadow of his successful sibling for a long time. Here he is given the opportunity to go on the road with the band for a year as a roadie. He also decides to make a film of the tour, and that film is what is presented in Mistaken for Strangers.
Tom can be an infuriating character. His tasks as roadie do not appear to be particularly onerous, but he constantly messes up, much to the frustration of Matt. However, you can’t help but warm to him, and he has been able to deliver a pretty impressive movie.
You see just how much footage he has when he is in the editing process, and admittedly we have no idea whether it was down to him, but the decision to concentrate on the sibling relationship was sound. The rest of the band are pretty much marginalised, which may frustrate fans, but did not bother me.
The last few minutes of the film showing scenes of the brothers bonding were genuinely heart warming, and it will be interesting to see how Tom’s career as a film maker goes from here.
Rating 7 out of 10