Film review: Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird

Since he was seven years old, Omar Rodríguez-López has been filming his life. It’s a habit that pays off handsomely in this sprawling rockumentary full of fiery character and historical detail. Director Nicolas Jack Davies had thousands of hours of footage – some over 40 years old – to comb through as he set out to chart the volatile bromance between the legendary At The Drive-In/Mars Volta guitarist and his longtime vocalist, collaborator and “soulmate” Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The result is an anarchic, hallucinogenic portrait of fractured genius.

“‘If this ever gets weird, promise me that we can just stop,’” Omar remembers making an oath with Cedric early on. “‘This is not more important than loving you!’ I say this just to illustrate how exciting the whole thing was, but also how beyond us it seemed.”

Safe to say, things get weird fast. After a whistle-stop recap of Omar’s early childhood in the racist South Carolina of 1984, then the Mad Max-like desert of El Paso, the pair meet amongst the half-pipe circle-pits and garage jam sessions of the East Texas punk scene. Drugs are an immediate motif, with Omar graduating from weed to coke to heroin (“Much cheaper than buying a joint”) within the first 17 minutes. Even still, nothing can compete with the high of At The Drive-In’s amp-smashing, jock-fighting ascent against the tide of violent nu-metal machismo that characterised alternative in the late-’90s and early-’00s.

Still, that’s somehow just the jumping-off point. More interested in human interrelationship than musical milestones, ATD-I’s multiple break-ups and reunions, the magnificently proggy rise and fall of The Mars Volta and adventures with brilliant, bonkers side-projects like De Facto and Antemasque become the backdrop for an invigoratingly personal odyssey.

Reflections on family and their Puerto Rican heritage are powerful. Cedric’s meeting future wife Chrissy and ill-fated indoctrination into Scientology is chronicled with surprising frankness and balance. The relapse into addiction and unexpected death of longtime creative partner Jeremy Ward feels like a pivot point. Meanwhile, snapshots of moments in time like recording ATDiI classic Relationship Of Command at the legendary, long-since burned down Indigo Ranch and storming Coachella with TMV layer on spiky personality.

Clocking in at just under two hours and stitched together with a freewheeling, kaleidoscopic (albeit chronological) flow that matches the duo’s music, this film will be a lot to take in for the uninitiated. Switches back and forth in the two-handed narration are often confusing, too. But those willing to sit back and let Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird wash over them will find themselves sucked into an intriguing tale of triumph, tragedy, retribution and untamed musical genius borne from the humblest of beginnings.

Verdict: 3/5

Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird is in select cinemas on October 10, and will be available to rent and buy on digital platforms on November 10 via Bulldog Film Distribution.

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