Review: Mistaken for Strangers

A documentary centred around two brothers, filmmaker Tom Berninger and his musician older brother Matt Berninger. Taking place in 2010, Matt has invited his estranged, shambolic brother Tom on tour with his indie rock band The National, as a roadie. Tom (who lives with his lovely parents), unfortunately is an idiot, is socially inept, and has seemingly no concept of what a roadie actually does. His innately irritating personality and his ever-constant camera (not to mention the annoyingly inane questions he asks) quickly grate on the various members of the band, but older brother Matt tries his best to accommodate Tom and act as peacemaker in the situation. Not an easy thing when…did I mention that Tom’s an idiot? Well, he is, and becomes quite a boorish alcoholic in record timing. He’s also a heavy metal fan (and amateur horror film director), not being into his brother’s more folk rock indie stylings.

 

2013 has delivered some pretty good documentaries, but this useless ‘rockumentary’ from director Tom Berninger isn’t one of them. I’m a music fan (and with a diverse taste that runs from ABBA to Motorhead to ZZ Top) but I haven’t listened to much from the last decade or so and modern indie folk/rock puts me to sleep nine times out of ten. But the band focussed on here, The National….ZZzzzz. Apparently they’re pretty popular, but I’ve never heard of them (But we all watch movies from first-time directors we’ve never heard of, so that didn’t stop me), and if the music on show in the film is truly indicative of what they normally sound like…yikes. They sound like an out-of-tune Coldplay, and I HATE Coldplay passionately (Doesn’t everyone?). So obviously there was a disconnect here with me due to the music being featured. I mean, if you’re the brother of the lead singer and your brother and his wife are producers on the film, wouldn’t it occur between the three of you that you should present the band’s musical performances in the best possible light? Or are the band really this out of tune? But this is really a film about two very different brothers, depressed and socially inept Tom Berninger and older brother Matt, the Chris Martin lookalike lead singer of The National. The problem? The film really only has one note to play, and it gets played out within the first 10 minutes of a film that at less than 70 minutes is at once too short and unendurably too long.

 

I did not enjoy this at all. It’s a really flimsy and empty film to be honest, and the only positive with it comes over the end credits as we hear the immortal Rob Halford (whom Tom is a big fan of) belting out a heavy metal version of ‘O Holy Night’ which may just be the most brilliant thing the guy has done since Judas Priest’s insane ‘Nostradamus’ concept album (Seek it out, it’s…something). Otherwise there’s five minutes worth of material here, and whilst Matt is your typical pretentious indie rock singer, his brother Tom is an entire universe of irritation unto himself. He’s basically the stupidly ignorant Zach Galifianakis man-child of documentary makers/subjects. And boy do I loathe Zach Galifianakis. This guy is a douchebag with no idea of how much of a douchebag he really is, and clearly has no idea what a roadie is supposed to do. Look, fat arse, if you want the meanies to stop yelling at you, get off your arse and do your freakin’ job, OK? It’s obvious that this guy struggles with depression and low self-esteem and I like to be sympathetic to such people, because I know plenty of them and have experienced minor versions of such feelings myself. But one gets the impression that Tom is the source of most of his own problems. He’s an immature, irresponsible, unambitious tit of a human being. By comparison, Matt’s a nice guy who wants to do right by his tit of a brother, and after an hour you even get to feel that. But it’s too late and not enough to sustain a film anyway. One also can’t help but feel that the idea of this overgrown adolescent getting a gig as a roadie simply because his estranged brother is the lead singer, is awfully contrived. I didn’t really buy it, documentary or not.

 

Also, I’ve gotta call bullshit on the interview with the band’s guitarist, who complains that no one wants to talk about him, they only want to talk about the lead singer. We’ve all seen “Almost Famous”, stop making drama up, you poseurs. The only interesting moment in the whole film comes from a trip to see mum, who shows the two brothers’ artwork to show how different they are. The rock guy’s artwork is Picasso-like abstract crap, and the roadie’s stuff is really good comic book-style stuff. Their parents are awesome, actually. I feel sorry for them.

 

This isn’t a movie, it sure as shit ain’t no “Some Kind of Monster”. It’s better off as a DVD extra on a concert DVD for The National, there’s just not nearly enough material (let alone interesting material) for a feature film. There’s nothing worse than a shit band fronted by a guy who thinks he’s a God-like poet. Russell Crowe, anyone? Thirty Odd Foot of Would You Please Get Back to Your Day Job, is more like it. Fans of The National might like this, but I’ve never heard of them and they sound like the out-of-tune garage band version of Coldplay. The film itself is flimsy, one-note, uninteresting, irritating and useless to anyone who isn’t already a fan.

 

Rating: D+