Movie Reivews - What We Do is Secret

What we do is Secret

August 8th, 2008 (08/08/08) is a pretty significant day, not only does it mark the beginning of the Beijing Olympics but also because its the New York opening day for 'What we do is Secret.' While true, its already screened quite a few times (myself having seen it at Fantasia) the whole coordinating the imagery of the date and the symbolic circle is pretty cool. The circle, not only represents the Olympic rings, but is also the logo for a little known punk band know as 'The Germs.'

'What we do is Secret' is a biography pic of the generally overlooked late-seventies punk band 'The Germs' focusing specifically on the lead singer Darby Crash. To be fair, I'm not a particular fan of The Germs, not because I don't like their music, but primarily because I don't listen to a lot of 'old school' punk that often (Minor Threat and The Ramones excluded). In all fairness, it wasn't my scene (I wasn't even born yet) and the fact that I can't see a band perform live is really a downer for me. Anyway, enough about me, this is a movie review.

Off the bat, Shane West did a great job representing the late Darby Crash. While his acting is kinda wavering at the beginning of the film and during his interviews, this is made up by the fact that his on-stage representation of Crash is spot on. More than that, West is perhaps a bit too perfect and after watching the movie I took the time to watch some YouTube videos of old Germs performances. Not only were the two similar, the film practically took the old footage and make the movie shot for shot and Crash is copied in both costume and hairstyle, and moreover, is re-created move for move and snarl for snarl. Literally.

The story presented to us though, transcends the standard punk film filled with sex drugs and rock and roll. Certainly there is plenty of that, but the movie is more centered around Crash as a charismatic leader as he takes his newly found band of friends on a joyride across the L.A. cityscape. Their concerts soon become something of legend because of their insane stage performance which normally left any venue smashed to pieces. As a result, bars begin to refuse them and a mythos created.

This isn't to say though that the aura old school punks speak of that surrounded The Germs is unfounded. The film does a fantastic job in really recreating the sound and performance of late70s punk and we even get a bit of Black Flag on the side. That was nice, and even better as I could see Joan lipsyncing the words sitting next to me. At the Q & A someone even mentioned to the director (Rodger Grossman) how great the music was done and he went into detail about the painstaking work he and his team put into making it sound 'authentic.' That being said, I loved the music scenes because of my background in the genre, and my sense was that most of the people in the audience were punkers too. Often though, the music scenes went on for minutes, and while I enjoyed it, for a non-Germs/non-punk fan these scenes would be draggingly long. However, you don't go to a movie about a punk band and not expect to see some stage shows.

Moreover, the music was amazing not only in how well it was recorded for the film, and its accuracy to the source material, but also because the original Germs members, including Foo Fighter's Pat Smear, worked very closely with the actors to ensure their stage performance was spot on, and they also produced much of the music tracks. You can't get any more 'authentic' than that! In fact, West did such a good job as frontman of the band that he was signed on to tour with The Germs on their revival tour. While I did take a few steps back when I saw The Germs playing on a Warped Tour stage on YouTube, the ironly that a film depicting the lives of The Germs led to a 'real life' revival of them makes someone who does his M.A. research on 'authenticity' just plain giddy.

While I've written at length about the music (and lets face it, for a movie about punk the music should be first and foremost) the story and script is just as well put together. While certainly sacrifices had to be made in terms of who was and wasn't represented (while the Germs had several managers, the manager in the movie was a mix of them) a tightly knit story ultimately unfolds as we see the rise and ultimate fall of Darby Crash. Moreover, Grossman does not make The Germs into out-and-out heroes, but instead shows the tensions that developed in the band, and Crash's willingness to take advantage of those who idolized him. At the forefront of this is his relationship between Crash, his boyfriend, and Germs' drummer Rob Henley (Ashton Holmes) and through this we see the jockeying for power ever present in the band and the emergence of Crash's God complex (although everyone he surrounds himself with is always more than willing to follow).

Amazingly, Grossman reminded the crowd how this was a 15 year old labor of love, not only from himself but also his crew and even the Germs themselves. The project was done on such a shoestring budget that every shot had to be used and continuity errors doe to the filming schedule just had to go into the movie. In the end, as a punk bio-pic there is very little one can say against the film, and after listening to the director it is even harder to criticize once we heard about the amount of work he put into it. Ultimately though, it remains just a punk rock film, which isn't necessarily bad thing (as its what you expect to see) but a tighter script and storyline could have easily made this into both a movie about a little known band and an exploration of megalomania. Finally, even among punks, The Germs are not a band you rattle off when you think of early punk, and my fear is that this film may in the end fall into the category of niche market viewing even though it has much more to offer to a wider audience.