Not since “American Movie” has there been such an entertainingly clumsy, warts-and-all documentary about making a movie, this time courtesy of Cincinnati filmmaker Tom Berninger. If his last name rings a bell, it’s due to his famous older brother, Matt, who’s the frontman for rock band the National.
When Matt invites his chronically underemployed sibling to come on tour with the group in Europe as a roadie, Tom sees it as a perfect opportunity to make a music doc, much to the chagrin of just about everyone. The ensuing tour footage cuts between concert performances and various band members and crew looking annoyed at Tom’s distracted interview style — not to mention his inability to remember to put the towels and water bottles onstage — but the bigger picture in “Mistaken for Strangers” is of a moving and complicated interplay between the two Berningers.
As the reliably blunt Tom puts it: “Having Matt as my older brother kind of sucks, because he is a rock star, and I am not, and it has always been that way.”