Over the course of several albums, the Brooklyn indie-rock quintet the National have perfected their aura of melancholy cool, their songs rich with cloudy-day introspection. (When you listen to the National’s music, you can easily imagine front man Matt Berninger moaning his moony lyrics while looking out his bedroom window at the empty, rain-swept street below.) You might imagine that a documentary about the band would be equally mournful, which is why it’s such a pleasant surprise how funny but also incisive Mistaken for Strangers is. Then again, it’s not really about the band.
Mistaken for Strangers was directed by Tom Berninger, Matt’s younger brother, and it appears that the movie was initially going to be your average life-on-the-road curio. Filmed during the group’s European jaunt to promote 2010’s High Violet, Mistaken for Strangers came about because Matt recruited Tom to be a band roadie, figuring it might be a good experience for his unfocused brother. (The band is something of a family affair: The other four members consist of two different sets of brothers.) But Tom, an aspiring filmmaker, decided to seize the opportunity and put together a documentary of the tour, even though nobody involved with the band or its tour operation really wanted one.
That description might make Mistaken for Strangers sound like a goofy romp or a cringe-inducing comedy as lovable-loser Tom keeps screwing up in increasingly embarrassing ways. But the film quickly veers into more intriguing territory when Tom begins to resent his lowly position on the tour’s food chain, his perception that he’s part of the band inconsistent with a reality where he’s viewed as just another grunt. (Tom, for instance, is incensed when he isn’t included in the band’s photo op with Barack Obama.) And so the documentary turns darker and more inward, as Tom ponders why his brother became a success while his own aspirations have produced nothing.
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