Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty grooms himself for vice-presidential consideration--by being a jerk.
Our reporter sets out in search of a naked lunch.
Before swinging a bat in a lesbian softball league, pick a side: gay or straight?
At JFK, Erhan Yildirim clears corpses for takeoff.
Stranger Than Paradise/Night on Earth
(Criterion)
There are actually three films among these two well-supplemented Jim Jarmusch releases: Stranger Than Paradise's second disc contains among its bonuses the filmmaker's 1980 debut, Permanent Vacation, in which nothing happens for 77 minutes. But the centerpiece of that collection is 1984s Stranger, in which John Lurie, Richard Edson, and Eszter Balint wander the gray, grimy wastelands in search of little more than shoplifted smokes and TV dinners; it's as dreary as it is deadpan as it is depressing as it is hilarious. Night on Earth, 1991s offering populated by bigger stars (Winona Ryder, Rosie Perez, Gena Rowlands), is less successful; it's a series of short stories, some better than others. But it's always been worth a look for Roberto Benigni's Rome segment, in which hes a taxi driver stiffed by a stiff; Touch my balls, he mutters in Italian. The mans a diamond among lumps of charcoal. — Wilonsky
Cheech and Chongs Up in Smoke: Special Collectors Edition
(Paramount)
Funny how humor changes as it ages — except for Up in Smoke, which is pretty much the same as it ever was. Much like the dope it idolizes, Smoke inspires hilarity for its first 15 minutes, followed by a long period of blank-faced staring. But now the movie serves as a time capsule of the post-hippie era, a fact played up by the making-of doc, which is worth watching just to hear Tommy Chong speak without his stoner voice. Most of the other bonuses — a computer-animated video for the awesome Earache My Eye, a compilation of the movies countless uses of the word man — are strictly for the chemically enhanced crowd. — Jordan Harper