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'What We Do Is Secret'

BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

August 8, 2008

The rise and fall of the Germs, the seminal Los Angeles punk band, were nearly simultaneous: Their first and only LP, "(GI)," came out in 1979; their singer, Darby Crash, committed suicide in 1980. His death didn't exactly make headlines ( John Lennon was killed the next day), but in "What We Do Is Secret," writer and first-time director Rodger Grossman offers a loving tribute to one of punk's earliest casualties.

With dead-on details and a fine cast, "Secret" re-creates that brief, colorful period before punk became a "scene" and still served as a melting pot of outcasts, artists and sleazeballs. Aside from Crash (Shane West, who'll front the regrouped band tonight at the Blender Theatre in Manhattan) and future Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear (Rick Rodriguez), nearly every key player is reincarnated here, from influential radio host Rodney Bingenheimer to foul-mouthed journalist Kickboy Face. There's even a nod to Long Beach's Joan Jett, who produced the Germs' album.

The film's faux-documentary style is a distraction, but it fades in and out. "Secret" is most compelling when the people and places of L.A. tell this tragic but somehow still ebullient story.

(R)

PLOT The story of Darby Crash and the Germs, the influential but ill-fated punk band.

CAST Shane West, Rick Gonzalez, Bijou Phillips, Noah Segan

LENGTH 1:32

PLAYING AT Sunshine Cinema, Manhattan

BOTTOM LINE Full of dead-on performances and details, "Secret" puts you right in the mosh pit of the early punk era.