THE MORPHIZM ARCHIVE

INTERVIEWS/FILM/MUSIC
OBSERVATIONS/POLEMIX

Stick a Fork in Them, They're Dead
The Dead Kennedys were one of punk rock's last outposts for anti-corporate integrity. That is, until the rest of the band sued Jello Biafra and stole the DK catalogue. What the hell happened? Funny, we asked Jello the same thing in our interview . . . MORE

The Mercy of Viewers
With a neglected cinematic subject like the Armenian Holocaust as the centerpiece of his latest film, Ararat, director Atom Egoyan isn't exactly killing at the box office. But he explains in our interview, it is in times of tyranny that overlooked stories like these need to be told . . . . MORE

One in a Series of Enabling Devices
From Bickle to Lamotta to Christ and now to Bob Crane, Paul Schrader has always had an eye for men on the verge of nervous breakdown. While his latest film interrogates the other type of home movies, we interrogate Paul in our interview . . . MORE

She's Notorious
Comedian Margaret Cho might talk about colonic irrigation and getting sexually probed by short lesbians in The Notorious C.H.O., but we still asked her about racial politics, her daring honesty and the September 11th backlash in our interview . . . MORE

Pall is Your Co-Pilot
The best band you've barely heard of during the last ten years is Three Mile Pilot. But you'll hear of them now that we got a chance to interview, Pall Jenkins, whose Black Heart Procession is continuing the very strange tradition of essential artistry overlooked. . . . MORE

"So That We Can Have a Cinema"
The media usually trots out stereotypes like Long Duc Dong when it feels like dealing with Asian America, but thanks to Justin Lin, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As Lin says in our interview, change is coming for you. Whether you want it or not . . . MORE

"I'm Not a Fan of Boring or Ugly"
Rock n' roll is supposed to be about fun and games, right? So why is everyone so serious all the time, wonders Eddie Angel, guitarist for the masked marauders of surf music, Los Straitjackets, in our first interview . . . . MORE

FILM

Spinning the Body Horror Web
From flies to twins to mugwumps and now on to spiders, David Cronenberg has mastered the art of taking the mind and body apart. But that primordial split is more destructive and understated in his latest release, Spider. Which is why it may just be the best film he has ever made. . . . MORE

The Meaning of Life? Ask the Mole-Rat
After four years of hibernation, Fast Cheap and Out of Control, Errol Morris's masterpiece on mortality, savagery and innovation, returns to remind us just how hell-bent we are for immortality. And how we'll die anyway . . . MORE

"I Don't Know Dick"
Contrary to what the newly released DVD for Heavy Metal 2000 may have her say, one would think that cult goddess Julie Strain would know dick very well indeed. But it would be hard to tell by looking at her film, because it's far too busy blowing the shit out of everything . . . . MORE

Spike Takes His Time
He's a born and bred New Yorker with a chip on his shoulder the size of an American tragedy. So it makes sense that Spike Lee's latest film, 25th Hour, would put his motley crew of hustlers, grifters and soft-hearted sympathizers at the heart of Ground Zero's moral oblivion . . . MORE

The Not-So-Straight Story
The world has been a sunnier, more optimistic place since David Lynch put his brutal stamp on cinema and sound with Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. But the master of narrative disaster is back and back big with his latest film, Mulholland Drive . . . . . MORE

Western Syndrome
It might look like Nolan's Memento all over again, but Gaspar Noe's film, Irreversible, is an unflinching if confusing look at how human depravity can cause society to rewrite its Bill of Rights in pursuit of an elusive justice. But does it go too far in its desire to shock, or is the West too desensitized to care? . . . . MORE

Persistence
It was just a matter of time before Holocaust survivor Roman Polanski revisited that nightmare of his youth. And although a Palme D'Or from Cannes --and perhaps an Oscar -- might soothe, his newest film, The Pianist, nevertheless feels like an old wound opening . . . MORE

Love at First Punch
He's barely over thirty but Paul Thomas Anderson has spent a good deal of his life rewriting the rules of cinema. Who else could insert Adam Sandler into a magical realist revision of the hackneyed romantic comedy like Punch-Drunk Love? . . . MORE

Dreamworking the Hollywood Dystopia
With mainstreamers like Spielberg and Cruise on board Minority Report, it's hard to imagine the film would have room for Philip K. Dick's panopticon future. But everything seems to be messed up just fine . . . MORE