Germ-O-Philes

This new DVD tracks the Germs’s improbable journey from high school outsiders who couldn’t play their instruments to legendary musical force.
-By John Bolster

What We Do Is Secret
The Plot:
A “faux documentary” biopic of Darby Crash, frontman for late-seventies L.A. punk band the
Germs.

Buy or Rent?
Rent. Hard-core fans will be disappointed that the movie gives the kid-glove treatment to many aspects of Crash’s sad, sordid story—which ended with his suicide at age 22—and fails to capture what was cool about the Germs: their feral, genuinely original music. Casual fans may well wonder what all the fuss was about.

Added Value?
A commentary track featuring director/cowriter Rodger Grossman and star Shane West, who’s so good as Crash that he toured as a band with Germs Lorna Doom, Don Bolles, and Pat Smear. Smear, by the way, may just be the coolest person the average music fan has never heard of. In addition to the Germs, he’s played with the Adolescents, Nirvana, and the Foo Fighters.