Despite its dynamic subject and reckless anti-glamor, this biopic about the legendary punk rocker Darby Crash fails to translate the excitement its subject generated.
Despite its dynamic subject and reckless anti-glamor, this biopic about the legendary punk rocker Darby Crash fails to translate the excitement its subject generated.
The true-life story of Darby Crash, who became a Los Angeles punk icon before taking his own life in 1980, provides the background for this gritty musical biopic. Not long after getting kicked out of an experimental high school in Los Angeles, charismatic misfit and major David Bowie fan Jan Paul Beahm (Shane West) announces that he wants to form a rock band. With his best friend Georg Ruthenberg (Rick Gonzalez), Beahm creates a group called the Germs, mainly because their first choice,
"Sophistif--k and the Revlon Spam Queens" costs too much to put on a T-shirt. Beahm appoints himself lead singer, Ruthenberg becomes guitarist even though he has no command of the instrument, and Beahm creates new stage names for them -- George becomes Pat Smear, and Jan is now Bobby Pyn. After a few less-than-impressive attempts to putting Beahm's "five-year plan" into action, the Germs begin to click with the addition of sweet but musically inexperienced Lorna Doom (Bijou Phillips) on bass and Arizona transplant Don Bolles (Noah Segan) on drums. Bobby Pyn gives himself another new name, Darby Crash, and the Germs become the talk of the Los Angeles punk scene with their reckless but literate songs and Darby's aggressive performance style. The Germs become big fish in the small pond of L.A. punk, but when hard drugs enter into the picture, Darby begins alienating those closest to him, and after the Germs' collapse, he's at a loss for how to bring his grand scheme to the next level. The real Pat Smear served as a music producer for What We Do Is Secret, recreating the sound of the Germs and other seminal L.A. punk groups for the soundtrack, while the surviving members of the Germs played a series of reunion dates following the production of the movie, with Shane West standing in as lead singer. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Some of the supporting performances, like those of Phillips and Gonzalez, are very strong, but it's West who lifts the entire film to a whole other level.
First-time writer-director Rodger Grossman bangs out a visceral, energized biopic that captures the vibrant idiocy of punked-out youth and a tortured soul gaining his wish of cult status.
A labor of love for writer-director Rodger Grossman, this entertaining if superficial biopic chronicles the rise and fall of LA punk pioneers the Germs.
Where What We Do Is Secret succeeds is in the performances which (and this a compliment, I think) sometimes expose a stilted, amateurish strain that's oddly in tune with the characters' D.I.Y. aesthetic.
A docudrama with the production qualities of a made-for-MTV movie about a band that recorded one album and never finished a gig and whose lead singer was a fascist poseur.
West is magnetic trying to fill the gaps in the pop psychology insight into how the Germs' brief candle burned out so fast, with performances, "interviews" and flashbacks.
Despite its thorough attention to historical detail and the obvious love of all involved for their shattered subject, What We Do Is Secret is, in the end, awfully sterile for a movie about the Germs.
The battering live shows prove West's dedication to the role, but as always there's too little insight into both music and musicians and too much period design
It's a shame to see such vibrant material treated in such a routine, nostalgic manner, but the energy of the material and especially of the Germs music occasionally rescues the movie from its unimpressive, superficial stretches.
I gave this a re-watch recently and can report that it holds up pretty well.I've never been familiar with the background of The Germs, Darby Crash, or even much of their music, but I really enjoyed this film. The style of storytelling is really effective, told in asides to the audience that fleshes out whatever scenes
have just occurred.Even going into this cold and knowing nothing about the subject matter, I was still quickly drawn into this one, it's well worth a look and Shane West gives an engaging performance as Crash.Recommended.
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