What We Do Is Secret
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Movie Reviews of What We Do Is Secret
Movie Review: Not the "Disaster Movie" I expected!
Summary: 3 Stars
I Heard about this Germs/Darby Crash Film for Years. I never really thought the Story was Much for a Hollywood Film. Since its release I Only heard how Bad it was!! I Am here to say its Really Not bad at all, a little Dreary, But not Terrible!
I liked the Interview segments, the Flashbacks & Forwards. I Liked Especially how the sense of "Family" was shown. I Always Loved That aspect of the Year One Hollywood Kids, how these Outcasts came together & Formed Their Own Community. It Is a Sad Druggy story, but that was Part of their world. Not as Colorful as I would have Liked to see, But I Think it is a "Success" Great Early Masque/Show Excitement. The Guy playing Don Bolles, Totally On Point! He's Still Like That!!
One Weird aspect, that I might have Misinterpreted. Wasn't Michelle Baer the Germs Manager for Most of their lifetime?? They had showed Chris from What? Records as their Long term Manager, & Michelle Co-Produced the Movie!
Anna Waronker As Joan Jett: AMAZING Performance!! she did the Music too!
Now Onto A Screamer's Movie!
Movie Review: Meh
Summary: 3 Stars
Lassoed into watching this thing cause my wife has serious lust issues towards the main actor (Shane West) Been a casual acquaintance with the Germs since I found punk around 1985, but always saw them as more of an acquired taste. They really are pretty atonal compared with the Ramones or Clash, or even the Sex Pistols for that matter. What they did have was that great raw, youth energy which has since been quelled via gaming and Facebook. The film in and of itself was not very good, but kudos go to the folks who slugged it out to get it made. Found a renewed appreciation for the Germs and started listening to them again. It's worth a view....Movie Review: Out of my element
Summary: 3 Stars
As a 63 year old grandmother, who is as far removed from the punk music scene as you could possibly get, this was difficult to watch...but I did. I believe that you can't dismiss things that you don't care for unless you try to understand what they are about. I hope that the movie was fairly accurate because it explains why someone might create music with so much "hurt" in it. I gave it three stars because that is a neutral number and although the material was one star for me it did a five star job at showing the gritty, difficult, unhappy lives that the band members lived.Movie Review: AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL
Summary: 1 Stars
IT'S A SHAME REALLY. I SO SO WANTED THIS TO BE A GREAT (OR AT LEAST GOOD) MOVIE. IT REALLY COMES OFF AS NOTHING MORE THAN AN AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL "LIFETIME" TYPE OF MOVIE. THEY SHOULD HAVE HAD MEREDITH BAXTER BIRNEY PLAY A PART AND IT WOULD BE COMPLETE. IT'S VERY HARD TO BELIEVE THAT PAT SMEAR, LORNA AND DON HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE PRODUCTION OF THIS MOVIE. ALL THREE OF THEM COME OFF AS THESE MINDLESS "FOLLOWERS" OF DARBY CRASH, INSTEAD OF HIS FRIENDS AND BAND MATES. MAYBE THAT'S HOW IT REALLY WAS. LUCKILY I WASN'T THERE. BUT I WAS AROUND THE NYC CITY SCENE DURING THE EARLY 80'S AND I SAW "THE DARBY CRASH" STORY OVER AND OVER A HUNDRED TIMES WITH DIFFERENT BANDS. I DON'T SEE WHY THEIR STORY IS SO IMPORTANT. THE GERMS WERE JUST AROUND AT A TIME WHEN IT WAS STILL POSSIBLE TO SHOCK PEOPLE. HELL,THEY DIDN'T EVEN TOUR. I DON'T THINK THEY EVER PLAYED OUTSIDE THE BORDERS OF CALIFORNIA. THE TRAILER FOR THE MOVIE IN ONE PART SAYS "IT'S MUSIC THAT CHANGED THE WORLD." NOW PUNK ROCK IN GENERAL MAY HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD...SLIGHTLY. BUT THE GERMS MUSIC DID NOT CHANGE THE WORLD. LET'S BE REALISTIC. DARBY WAS A GREAT LYRICIST, BUT THAT'S WHERE THE INTERESTING PART OF THIS BAND ENDS. I'VE SEEN THE LIVE VIDEOS OF THE ORIGINAL GERMS (NOT THE SHANE WEST BAND) THAT ARE AVAILABLE AND ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT "I GUESS YOU HAD TO BE THERE." I GET THE FEELING THAT A BIG REASON FOR THIS MOVIE WAS TO ROMANTICIZE PAT, LORNA AND DON'S YOUTH AND FOR THEM TO TAKE A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE. I WAS IN A BAND IN THE EARLY 80'S AND I'D LOVE FOR SOMEBODY TO MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THOSE DAYS. BUT IT SEEMS THAT MORE THAN ANYTHING, THIS MOVIE WAS MADE TO CAPITALIZE ON THE POPULARITY OF "PUNK ROCK" AND TO MAKE THE X-GERMS MEMBERS A FEW BUCKS....AND THAT'S O.K. THIS MOVIE HONESTLY SEEMS LIKE IT WAS MADE BY THE SAME PEOPLE THAT WORK AT HOT TOPIC. IT WAS COOL 30 YEARS AGO. NOW IT'S MAIN STREAM AND BORING. THEY COULDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO FIND GUITARS AND AMPS FROM THAT TIME PERIOD. THE LIVE SCENES OF THE GERMS HAD EQUIPMENT THAT WASN'T EVEN MADE YET IN THE LATE 70'S/1980.
I READ THE BOOK "LEXICON DEVIL" (THE STORY OF DARBY CRASH AND THE GERMS) WHICH WAS WRITTEN BY THE GERMS' DRUMMER, DON BOLLES. ALL THE IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT DARBY AND THE GERMS AND THAT WHOLE TIME AND SCENE WERE COMPLETELY GLOSSED OVER IN THIS MOVIE.
THE ONLY BAND FROM THE L.A. PUNK SCENE THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED "IMPORTANT" IS BLACK FLAG. THEY DESERVE TO HAVE A MOVIE MADE ABOUT THEM. IF YOU WANT TO SEE A GREAT GREAT BIOPIC ABOUT A BAND, CHECK OUT "CONTROL", THE STORY OF IAN CURTIS AND JOY DIVISION.
Movie Review: NOT the Germs
Summary: 1 Stars
If this movie has actually helped some people discover the Germs and the old school punk scene, then I guess that's a good thing.
BUT...
This movie has nothing to do with reality. Far from a realistic portrait, this film presents Darby Crash as a nice, but misunderstood kid who could just as easily have been a supporting character on "Dawson's Creek" and makes the L.A. punk scene look like an episode of "90210."
Read "Lexicon Devil" or watch "Decline of Western Civilization" as a contrast. Or just listen to the Germs. Just Darby's lyrics on their own illustrate the yawning chasm between who he really was and who Roger Grossman and Shane West make him out to have been. Even Don Bolles has dismissed the movie as worthless in interviews.
Brilliant, whiny, pathetic, cruel, insecure, domineering, self-destructive, confused, deceitful and very, very sad, Darby Crash was a profoundly flawed and often unpleasant screwed up kid who also happened to write some of the best punk rock lyrics ever produced for one of the scene's most influential bands.
Grossman and West manage to gloss over everything that was difficult, disturbing and most importantly, tragic about Darby. And in their attempt to lionize him, they paint a bland and sterile picture of an average adolescent who seems like he'd be more comfortable singing for Fallout Boy than the Germs.
As I'm no stickler for obsessive historical accuracy, all of this could maybe - MAYBE - be forgivable if the movie were well-made or had something important to say. But no. It's just an oversimplified whitewash of one of the most complex, orginal and influential artists the punk scene has produced.
If you want a great fictional movie about early punk, skip this trash and go watch "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains." In it's way, that movie says more about old school punk rock than this film ever could.