Welcome to What to Watch Right Now, our weekly rundown of the best things to see in culture. The constant stream of shows, videos, and films to watch online can be overwhelming. So, here are a few things you can watch, courtesy of the Rolling Stone Philippines team. Whether it’s a new film, a video essay, or even a home release you should own (physical media is now!), we hope our picks can ease the burden of selecting a streaming platform and set you on a new path of discovery.
This week, we couldn’t pull ourselves away from the latest gory addition to the Alien franchise, Alien: Earth (It’s not for the faint of heart). Some Nights I Feel Like Walking kept us glued to our seats as well, and director Petersen Vargas’ new fever dream drama is one worth seeing in cinemas. Do the Right Thing may be almost 40 years old, but there’s a reason why it’s widely seen as Spike Lee’s greatest joint. Where is the Friend’s House is a masterclass in childhood cinema, Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale has us rooting for our favorite drag artists (But especially the Filipino queens: represent!), and Jinkx Monsoon’s chaotic interview with Ziwe is definitely one for the books.
‘Do the Right Thing’
What does a 36-year-old film have to tell us about the complicated racial relations in an era dictated by social media algorithms? A lot. Spike Lee’s masterpiece is basically your Twitter (oh, sorry, X) feed on the daily: ragebaits, flaming tirades, and racist remarks hitting everyone all at once.
In Lee’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, the tension rises during the course of a day, along with the summer heat (cinematographer Ernest Dickerson and production designer Wynn Thomas made sure that the stickiness and sweat were palpable onscreen, making for vivid visuals). The film so confidently intersects the lives of people in the neighborhood, increasing the pressure with each look, stare, or movement (Radio Raheem walking on the street, Sal refusing to engage with Buggin’ Out’s call out why he doesn’t have black person in their pizzeria’s wall of fame, Mookie’s indifference with his job, etc.) until it breaks open in the film’s climactic scene.
No filmmaker has been able to do what Lee has done here since: a freewheeling romp attuned to the joys of pop culture that masquerades as a comedy but exacts its calculated commentary on society when it’s time to face the music. Though Do the Right Thing is now on 4K UHD, I still prefer the softer edges of the Blu-ray compared to the crisper 4K restoration. — Don Jaucian
‘Where is the Friend’s House?’
Abbas Kiarostami’s 1987 film takes a very simple premise and turns it into one of the great masterpieces of childhood cinema. In Where is the Friend’s House?, grade school student Ahmad (Babak Ahmadpour) is desperate to return the notebook of his classmate, Nematzadeh (Ahmed Ahmadpour), which he took by mistake. Earlier that day, in class, their asshole of a teacher relentlessly screamed at Nematzadeh for doing his homework on a paper, not a notebook.
What follows is a wonderfully shot journey traversing one town to the next, as Ahmad tries to track down Nematzadeh’s house, despite only knowing the town where he lives and nothing else. Michael Cera, in conversation with Criterion Channel, pointed out that it plays out like a Jim Henson film, complete with potentially magical characters that Ahmad encounters along the way. — Don Jaucian
‘Alien: Earth’
Alien: Earth exists in multiple strands across the Alien franchise timeline. Its setting acts as if to magically erase the Earth-based xenomorph action of the two Alien vs. Predator films, and to bring the finale of Alien Resurrection into full circle. But technically speaking, Alien: Earth is set in 2120, two years before the events in Alien and its sequels, and set before the prequels Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and last year’s Alien: Romulus. The most promising thing about Alien: Earth is the potential in probing the Weyland-Yutani lore deeper, with the new company, Prodigy, coming into play with its experiments in transferring the consciousness of humans into synthetic bodies.
The pilot episode (‘Neverland’) lays out the world of Alien: Earth. We meet our protagonists, the synthetic Wendy (Sydney Chandler), obviously named after the Peter Pan character; Hermit (Alex Lawther), Wendy’s “former” brother (since she has discarded her old, diseased body/self when she became a synthetic), a search and rescue medic for the Prodigy Corporation, and Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), Earth’s youngest trillionaire who heads Prodigy. Events are set in motion when a Weyland-Yutani research vessel carrying a xenomorph crashes on Prodigy territory. Boy Kavalier then sends a team — including Wendy and her fellow synthetics, who are literally children in adult bodies — to salvage the contents of the ship. Expect typical gut busters, acid blood, and ruminations on immortality mixed with showrunner Noah Hawley’s (Fargo, Legion) trademark sophisticated storytelling. — Don Jaucian
‘Some Nights I Feel Like Walking’
It’s best to go into this fever dream blind. Directed by Petersen Vargas (Un/Happy For You, 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten, A Very Good Girl, the list goes on!), Some Nights I Feel Like Walking slowly draws you into Manila’s world of sex work, drugs, and poverty. It follows hustlers Uno (Jomari Angeles), Bay (Argel Saycon), Rush (Tommy Alejandrino), and Ge (Gold Aceron), along with newcomer Zion (Miguel Odron), as they cruise the city’s streets and cinemas to make ends meet.
As I exited the movie’s Philippine premiere night (which included a pangmasahe station, safe sex goodie bags, and a delightful in-cinema macho dancer session), I couldn’t help but mull over how Some Nights dances back and forth between different genres. It presents itself as a “gritty” drama at first, especially as we follow the five young men on one of their work nights at a cinema. Then it slips into a tender romance, one that seems to defy the high stakes of the movie’s first act. And then it slips into clear, fever-dream territory, with Russell Adam Morton’s surreal, vivid cinematography fueling the boys’ journey and their struggle to let go of their past traumas. — Mel Wang
‘Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale’
Although I’m inclined to say that the five Filipino drag queens on Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale are all a shoo-in to win (#PinoyPride), all the contestants are definitely putting their all into getting the grand prize of P2 million (35,000 US dollhairs).
We’re only two episodes in, but we’ve already seen some jaw-dropping Asian-centric runways (Case in point: Khianna’s carabao fit), questionable RuVeals (Arizona Brandy’s crotch-to-forehead bangs was a choice), and the whispers of tea and tearjerking sessions that have defined the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise.
While I do hope that the contestants don’t hold back on the drama in later episodes, especially since we’ve seen contestants in other iterations of the franchise try to play it nice and safe (Ew!), Slaysian Royale is shaping up to be a campy, kooky, and unapologetically Asian race for the crown. — Mel Wang
Jinkx Monsoon’s Chaotic Interview with Ziwe
Ziwe has slowly built up a reputation as one of the most sarcastic interviewers out there (Check out her passive-aggressive chats with George Santos, Reneé Rapp, and Lizzo), but it looks like she met her match with her latest interviewee: the one, the only, Jinkx Monsoon.
Beyond some amazing one-liners from the American drag queen (“Have you ever had white food?”, “Who is this… Jake Hay Rowling?”, and “Is that your natural hair color?”), Jinkx Monsoon and Ziwe covered a lot of ground in their 30-minute tête-à-tête. From dunking on the transphobic Harry Potter author herself, to being a trans woman on Broadway, to discussing the five Blackest things about Jinkx Monsoon (see four minutes and 27 seconds), this might be, as Jinkx so aptly put it in the YouTube video’s comment section, “the most important interview [she’s] ever done.” — Mel Wang
