Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird

“If this ever gets weird let’s just stop. This is not more important than loving you.”

Omar Rodriguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala come across like two of the most self-aware rock stars in history, making this commitment before their first big project, At The Drive In, ever got close to a breakthrough. At each stage on the journey that followed, they remained alert to each other and tried to take sensible precautions. Despite that, Nicolas Jack Davies’ documentary is as full of disasters, loss and suffering as it is success, fame and creative achievement.

The two musicians met when they were both young and not yet bound to any particular musical direction. Omar describes the place, El Paso, as a no man’s land, between two worlds, which seems to echo how he felt about his own identity as a young Puerto Rican in the US. He recalls the thrill of finding punks and other outcasts whom he could relate to, and among them Cedric, slamdancing at a gig. There was an instant connection, romantic for a while, but one of those relationships which persists and only grows deeper after that part is over. It would shape the rest of their lives.

The film takes a linear approach to the story that follows. Fans will already be familiar with most of the big events but may be drawn to the intimacy with which they are discussed. For more casual followers of their music, there’s context explaining some of the oddities associated with their journey. Why did they abandon At The Drive In at the height of its fame? As they talk, archive footage substantiates their discomfort with the fan base they had attracted, the difficulty they felt performing in front of aggressive homophobic white men. The plan they had always had to take six months out if they ever ran into trouble like that; and how that morphed into a period of quiet creativity, giving birth to The Mars Volta.

There is an extensive focus on their work with Jeremy Ward, the pressures that romantic intimacy added to creative work, the musical discoveries they made together, and what followed. Omat talks openly about own his flirtation with heroin and how, when he realised it was a problem, Cedric was there to help him. For his part, Cedric talks about meeting Chrissie (Carnell Bixler), their marriage, and how it led to his involvement with Scientology. The betrayal that followed, with Cedric’s new ‘friends’ working hard to turn him against Omar just at he point when the latter was reeling from a family tragedy, left both men reeling and temporarily ended their musical collaboration. It would be many years before they reconnected, following the ugly incident that led Cedric to leave Scientology and to face the media monstering that is commonplace in such circumstances.

Throughout the film, there is a focus on music as a force for healing. It’s something to which both men give a great deal of themselves, sometimes at a price, but it also seems to be what keeps bringing them together and getting them back on an even keel. Though it plays consistently in the background, however, there are few moments when the film really focuses on it, and we don’t hear much conversation about it or about the creative process, which may disappoint some viewers.

Over two hours in length, the film takes in a great deal, but never really seems to get very deep. As the title might suggest, it’s more a portrait of a friendship than of Omar and Cedric as creative artists. It’s also successful at establishing the awkwardness of progressing in the music industry if one can’t fit the standard template and related expectations – but perhaps it’s because of their difference that the two survived.

Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird is in select cinemas now.

Reviewed on: 10 Oct 2025