Review of What We Do Is Secret (2007) by Louis F — 10 Nov 2008

Welcome to punk rock for the MTV generation. The story here was completely sugarcoated and ultimately half baked. I'm certainly not suggesting that Darby was any kind of unique rock genius (despite my personal adoration of him), but seriously, how many times can we watch the same music biopic? Even those who have no idea who Darby Crash or The Germs were will no doubt find this jaunt familiar to the point of predictability.

Performances are not bad, but at most times seem to be a little stiff and the costume design looks so inauthentic that at times I had to wonder if Grossman was going for docudrama or heightened farce, as it fell somewhere in a confusing middle ground.

The ending of the film was handled quite well, and with that I at least walked away from it feeling somewhat satisfied. However, the heavy influence from the remaining three band members actually hurt, rather than helped, the story in giving it a severe lack of objectivity. Considering how long it took to both make, and release, this film, it honestly wasn't worth the wait.