"What We Do Is Secret": A standout bad-boy performance in conventional punk-and-drugs biopic

Like a lot of showbiz biographies, Rodger Grossman's "What We Do Is Secret" functions on two levels: as a celebration of a career, and as a vehicle for a rising young star with a talent for impersonation.

The impersonation often trumps the biography, and that's once again the case in Grossman's account of the short and splashy existence of Darby Crash, the anarchistic lead singer of the Germs, an influential late-1970s Los Angeles punk-rock band.

Grossman may have designed his movie as a tribute to the Germs, but it quickly narrows its focus to Darby, whose nihilistic impulses are traced back to an unfortunate upbringing and a habit of taking Nietzsche very seriously.

Darby is played by former teen heartthrob Shane West ("A Walk to Remember"), who smothers all romantic impulses in order to capture the negative energy of the character's provocations. Darby is a bad boy for the ages, and West makes something thrilling of his anti-social pride.

The band's other members aren't as carefully written, though they're well-played by Bijou Phillips, daughter of the late John Phillips (as the band's bassist); Rick Gonzalez (as a guitarist who later joined the Foo Fighters); and Noah Segan (as the drummer). Ashton Holmes is appropriately annoying as a manipulative male groupie.

Michele Hicks has one good scene as Penelope Spheeris, the filmmaker who chronicled punk-rock groups in her "Decline of Western Civilization" documentaries. By the time she was filming the Germs, they were so notorious that no L.A. club would book them. Spheeris had to provide her own sound stage and live audience — an episode that stands out as a missed opportunity. It's too bad she doesn't become a larger force in the film, which comes off as a rather conventional account of a young man's flirtation with fame, greed and lethal drugs.

If you've seen one movie based on the downhill slide of a rock star, do you really need to see another one? Why not just listen to their recordings instead?

It's a question that too many music biographies end up suggesting, though the temptation to resurrect the dead can be difficult to resist. While "What We Do Is Secret" may not be remembered for much more than West's performance, it's an impersonation worth saluting.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com