Love, apparently, is going through a Scientology initiation ceremony. That’s what At the Drive-In and Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López finally agrees to in order to convince singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala to work with him once again – even though it was the latter who asked to reconcile after dissolving the second of these outfits in 2012. Nicolas Jack Davies’s wearing documentary charts this intense friendship and creative collaboration from their early days as afro-haired Puerto Rican dervishes on the largely white 1990s Texan punk scene, through the vicissitudes of their numerous musical outlets.
“If this ever gets weird” is their day-one promise to each other: that they will dissolve whatever band they are working on if it threatens their relationship. It has definitely got weird by the time a frazzled Bixler-Zavala jealously criticises his running buddy’s side projects on social media. And then later, suspecting Rodríguez-López of being a “suppressive person” (to use the lingo of the Church), he forces him to get his thetans checked. At this point, the pair have already weathered two cycles of exhilaration and disillusionment with their two main groups – as well as the fatal overdose of Mars Volta creative galvaniser Jeremy Ward.
Their bond is clear, as well as the unstoppable artistic drive woven through it; this is evident in the bottomless pit of footage shot by Rodríguez-López that Davies stitches, often beautifully, into the fabric of his film. However, leaving the two musicians to narrate (sometimes switching between them confusingly), the director doesn’t cultivate a broader perspective that might illuminate this morass. Themes flicker – opposition to white America, their striving to reclaim their Latino heritage in the Mars Volta’s rhythms – but Davies is in a hurry to move on. Sparingly employed bursts of their hectic, off-kilter aural assaults don’t do enough to signpost their importance to wider pop culture.
This is perhaps a difficult thing to define: as Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha points out when introducing them on stage, the pair specialised in moments, rather than hits. But if human connection is their ethos, and the film’s priority their friendship, then Davies’ flat chronological structuring doesn’t give that strong enough dramatic contours either. It’s sweet to see this punk bromance remain intact – but the blow-by-blow telling leaves you wishing for some of the same time out the pair obviously needed.
• Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird is in UK and Irish cinemas from 10 October.
