What We Do Is Secret

This coulda been good but it was pretty awful. Bad acting by most of the cast, poor direction and the sound was crappy (although the crowd noises during the concert scenes sounded real). I am not a fan of the Germs and although I do respect what they tried to do but this seemed like a whole lot of nothing. If this was an accurate portrayal of Darby Crash I do not think he is deserving of a biopic that makes him out to be an original innovator. He was a Iggy Pop wannabe and then an Adam Ant poser. It was embarrassing; I could not wait for him to OD so the film would be over. The majority of the songs performed in concert were awful.

Hope one day someone does a good film about the West Coast Punk scene. Maybe a film about SST records and the bands who recorded for them would be good.

Who? Well quite, and that may well be the problem for any casual movie fan who happens to like musical bio-pictures. Jan Paul Beahm during his short run for fame was better known as Darby Crash, lead singer and founding member of Los Angeles punk band The Germs. Firmly picking up on the punk ethic for doing it yourself, Crash and his band made waves across L.A. for a short period of time. Much like The Sex Pistols back in the UK, The Germs were blighted by being unable to play venues as their reputation preceded them. With Crash growing ever more erratic as he tried to execute the various strands of his so called 5 year plan, those around him invariably suffered. Here director Rodger Grossman attempts to tell the "true" story of the life and death of an enigmatic young man on a "crash" course to oblivion.

With low production values and a choppy attempt at being a semi rockumentary, What We Do Is secret is really only of interest to fans of the band or those wishing to bone up on American punk rock circa 1976-1980. Even tho myself, an ageing old British punker, quite liked The Germs, this film only exists because of two major factors. For the facts are that outside of L.A. they were hardly known at the time. It's only because of Crash's subsequent suicide at a young age {on the day John Lennon was shot and killed} and guitarist Pat Smear's future involvement with Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, that the band have had a reappraisal. With minimal input cut onto disc, one has to wonder if someone is trying to build up a legend that doesn't actually exist? What can be said with confidence is that the film at least brings the L.A. punk scene to notice. With all the historical talk about the New York punk scene that was born out of CBGB'S and Max's Kansas City, it often gets forgotten that L.A. had its moments too.

The cast here are pretty much the run of the mill performers one expects from such a production. Ranging from adequate (Shane West as Crash) to very decent (Rick Gonzalez of Coach Carter fame as Smear), Grossman's film will not be remembered for any great thesping. And since Crash is not very likable, or engaging on an intellectual level, the finale is unlikely to strike you with a sadness born out of the waste of a young life. However, the soundtrack crackles with punk vibrancy and emotive potency, and definitely some of the concert sequences have the look and feel of the original punk rock era. But ultimately the piece remains only worth an interest to an undemanding and small selection of music fans. Oh and 70s fashion guru's as well one thinks. 5.5/10

I just saw the Germs movie "What We Do Is Secret" in Westwood and it was awesome. The director and several of the actors were on hand which was cool. The music and lyrics of The Germs were a major part of my adolescent years in the early 80's. Usually rock n'roll bio pics just plain suck (they always do on VH1) and I was worried about this movie sucking since I am a huge Germs fan. It didn't suck, it ROCKED! The music was great. The acting was really well done. The directing was tight. The movie was paced well and it did a great job telling the story of a misunderstood band and it's front man, Darby Crash. This movie was obviously written and directed by someone who loved the Germs and it showed.

Hats off to the cast and crew for a job well done!!!!!

This movie was great, both to inform people who care to learn, and people who are already interested in the subject and punks in general. I read a comment in here that said this movie was too "clean" and that punks were "scum and proud". If this is a reason to dislike this movie then you obviously are not seeing things how you're supposed to. The whole mind set of punks is being themselves and being individual because they feel that's what is right. In their minds they're not doing anything wrong; in their minds, they were the ones who were truly clean, where as the high and mighty assholes of society living their fake lives were the ones who were scum and proud. This film is through the viewpoint of the punks, to better relate to them. Keep that in mind when watching this film, it isn't like every other punk movie spat out by the media to show how outrageous and unethical punk is, whoring it like it's some kind of circus act, if you're looking for that in a punk movie, you're missing the point and should steer clear of this film.

The ascension of The Germs was more of a local buzz of fans obsessed with seeing a self-fatal maniac cut himself on stage and snarl into a cheap mic. I used to be a huge Germs fan, not so much any longer, nevertheless, The film follows Darby's persistent nihilistic struggles as he moves forward with The Germs. I was terrified that this would be a simple boring chronicle with a fade to black at the end with a little blurb about what they're doing now. But I was confronted with a film that bridged an interesting gap between documentary and narrative film. The acting is suburb and the film is easy to watch and mostly accurate, which is surprising! Most 'punk' films are obsessed with a hard and fast sound track filled with the heavy hitting punk bands. This one however sticks mostly with Germs tunes, but fills the void with Bowie (one of Darby's favs) and some fear (they're playing at a club). The film-makers made excellent choices to keep the sound track in a supporting role and let Darby really take the lead, just as his did in the band.

Darby, for me, always summed up the punk world view, which is really angry nihilism (talk about irony)and I think this conflict is what he is ultimately struggling against, and also the reason that Punk as a 'movement' is self-defeating. Darby, as a character, is deep. And is artfully played. In the end, I suppose he would have made Nietzsche proud, Darby the anti-hero, the result of aspiring to the role of Übermensch. He found however, the bleak truth behind that famous graffiti, God is dead ~Nietzsche, Nietzsche is dead ~God.