Two musicians from Puerto Rico, representing El Paso, Texas.
This is the unique story of a pair of artists whose journey constantly evolved and changed thanks to their unapologetic spirit of being themselves. Cedric and Omar: If This Ever Gets Weird is a fascinating odyssey told through narration and home footage that Cedric had been filming since he was a kid through his adulthood. He finds images and moments from their life that help this documentary feel constantly fresh and stimulating throughout its runtime. Divided into a few parts that help carve out the trajectory of their musical journey, the film is a very candid and raw look into their lives.
Immediately, we get the idea that they are fun, spirited guys who, at the latter end of 2000, are getting a chance to completely redefine their music. The pair are a couple, and are contemplating if and when they should expose themselves to the world, changing how they may be perceived as artists forever. This is the cliffhanger that we are left with.
The film is able to delve into many topics with interesting and compelling home footage. Frankly, it’s a really well-edited film that I am sure would have taken months to sort through. They manage to find shots and clips that work so well with the different weird (and, sometimes, fantastical) encounters that they have in their journey. The first is the issue of race. As Puerto Rican children in the late 70s in America, they quickly felt the prejudice that is found in white spaces, a relationship they were too acutely aware of as they joined the punk rock scene. Their unique message and music soon became swallowed by a genre that often promotes hazard and violence, causing their successful band In the Drive-In to pivot. Their unique perspective as artists drive the journey that we see in the documentary, revealing artists who truly made their art the foremost expression of their lives.
They were not making art to live. They lived to make art.
The film’s spirit reflects that of Cedric and Omar as artists. The music itself really fits a lot of these sequences and the interesting free-flowing images. Their music, like their personalities, are really confident and hypnotic to watch. The home footage is often skillfully captured, reflecting the artist’s spirit that Cedric shows as the often convoluted and messy images fit the artist’s aesthetic. In the end, it’s a really interesting and touching documentary that does feel like it has its own biopic found in it. But the story told here is just as worthy and assuredly more personal than any music biopic that Hollywood could deliver.
Cedric and Omar: If This Ever Gets Weird is on VOD on January 10th, 2025.
