After making its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last April, it looks like rock doc “Mistaken for Strangers” is finally ready to make its theatrical debut. The film follows the popular indie rock band, The National, as they embark on an Eastern European tour, and was directed by the lead singer’s brother, Tom Berninger, a man who idolizes his older sibling and wants to do right by him, but quite obviously has some issues and shortcomings of his own.
While the documentary apparently does a fine job of capturing The National on stage, it’s more about the sibling rivalry that takes place between the filmmaker and his brother. Tom Berninger is not just on tour to be their documentarian, he’s also supposed to be their roadie, and the film often makes light of Tom’s ineptitude in that department.
Our own Gabe Toro very much liked the film and found the band’s treatment of Tom to be quite amusing, noting that Tom’s ideas of life on the road “comes from an earlier time when everybody was motivated by the same sense of misbehavior.” Nowadays, in the age of social media, rock bands can no longer afford to live a life of excess nor can they tolerate a roadie who parties too hard. On that note, it should be fun to see how “Mistaken for Strangers” differs from all the classic rock-umentaries that were made back in heyday of rock ‘n’ roll abandon.
You can catch “Mistaken for Strangers” when it comes out in theaters and on demand on March 28th. In the meantime, be sure to check out the film’s trailer below.
