Review of What We Do Is Secret (2007) by Wayne Z — 30 Jan 2009

It should be here because at least someone made a film about Darby Crash and the Germs. Personally I would have preferd a documentary, but seeing that hardly any footage exists and most the people involved in the story are now dead, I guess that angle would have been pretty impossible. Shane West sounds like Darby when he is singing but when he is being interviewed (in the black and white footage) he reminded me more of Johnny Knoxville! At times I felt this film was actually putting me off ever hearing the Germs again!! It definately seemed like a modern day re-telling: A sanitized interpretation punctuated with factoids. Most the characters, with the exception of Darby, are made to look like total weasels, bowing to his superiority. If he was such supposedly such an intellectual visionary why did he conform to (his audiences) expectations? The Darby Crash Band sounded more like The Germs than The Germs often did in this. There are some bad wigs in this. The portrayal of Dave Vanian of The Damned (obviously played by an American putting on a cockney voice!!!) had me falling off my bed in disbelief, such was the alarming inaccuracy. So with that in mind, what faith could I install in the other portrayals in this movie?

If I didn't like the band so much I would probably have given it a slightly higher score.