Welcome to What to Watch Right Now, our weekly rundown of the best things to watch right now. The constant stream of shows, videos, and films to watch online can be a sludge to wade through. 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, Materialists had us lusting after Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, while My Love Will Make You Disappear gave us a more straightforward, but perhaps cheesier, outlook on love. Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea , now screening in Philippine cinemas, is definitely a necessary watch as it pulls back the curtain on what exactly is going on in those contested waters. I Saw the TV Glow is a meditative, heartbreaking horror that definitely should have been nominated for an Oscar, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba deserves a binge-watch now that the movie is coming out, and Smosh Summer Games: Class of 2005 offers a comedic, nostalgic hit.
‘Materialists’
Pedro Pascal or Chris Evans? That is the question. What a wonderful, beautiful, God-awful dilemma to have, and Dakota Johnson finds herself in this sticky predicament in director Celine Song’s maddening romantic comedy, Materialists.
Lucy, played by a cold, level-headed Johnson, is an ambitious New York City matchmaker who is quick to judge the city’s finest bachelors and bachelorettes by their “tangible” assets (height, weight, wealth, annual salary, the whole shebang). Lucy eventually gets caught in a pickle: Should she choose to be with the extremely handsome, suave, and rich, rich, RICH bachelor Harry (played by a gorgeous Pedro Pascal)? Or is the right choice really her equally-extremely handsome, suave, and broke-ass actor-slash-ex-boyfriend John (played by a dreamy Chris Evans)?
The pragmatist in all of us would have chosen Pedro Pascal in a heartbeat. I would have chosen Pedro Pascal in a heartbeat, because who doesn’t want a 6’2” man in finance whisking you around the most expensive date spots of New York City? But Song, just as she did in her Oscar-nominated romance Past Lives, forces us to be… well, dare I say, less materialistic. We’re definitely not falling for any broke boy propaganda here, but Song does give a strong-enough argument about how economics, bank accounts, and financial status can sometimes all melt away in the face of true love (i.e. Chris Evans).
‘Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea’
Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea has seen its fair share of controversies. The documentary, directed by Baby Ruth Villarama, centers around the Filipino navymen and fisherfolk who tread the West Philippine Sea’s contested waters. The documentary was meant to premiere at the Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival earlier this March, but was unceremoniously pulled from the festival days before its intended release. The project then found itself in cinematic limbo, unsure whether it would ever be seen by the Filipino audiences it was made for. It finally got a break when it made its world premiere at New Zealand’s Doc Edge Awards. As of writing, it is currently being screened in cinemas nationwide.
Food Delivery is far from an easy watch. Much of the documentary shows Filipino fishermen struggling to secure their catch for the day, especially in waters with the increased presence of the China Coast Guard (CCG). In grim, blurred videos, members of the CCG can be seen firing water cannons to deter both fishing vessels and naval ships from coming closer. The documentary also follows a group of fishermen who take their boat out to sea in search of four of their fellow fisherfolk, who have been missing since December 2024.
‘I Saw the TV Glow’
Is I Saw the TV Glow a horror movie? Not in the traditional sense. Director Jane Schoenbrun has delighted in blurring the line between real and fantastical horror since their 2018 debut documentary A Self-Induced Hallucination (which questions the mythos of the internet legend Slenderman), and in I Saw the TV Glow, they definitely do not disappoint.
The “horror movie” follows Owen (Justice Smith), a quiet, nervous teenager who isn’t quite sure how he fits into the world around him. Owen finds a friend in Maddy (Jack Haven), a fellow angsty teen who is obsessed with the young adult horror TV show, The Pink Opaque. The two outcasts bond over their love of the show, but reality starts to bend when they find themselves being pulled into the frightening world of The Pink Opaque.
It would be a disservice to explain away any part of I Saw the TV Glow’s strange, heartbreaking storyline, and it’s the type of movie that requires a lot of reflection (and perhaps one or two more rewatches) to fully appreciate the horrors that both Owen and Maddy experience, real or unreal. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find a poignant horror story about the trans experience and what it means to yearn for acceptance, even from your own body.
‘Smosh Summer Games: Class of 2005’
As someone who grew up watching Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla scream “AMBERLAMPS” well into my high school years, I felt very, very old when I realized that Smosh turned 20 this year. The YouTube channel has grown over the years, morphing from just an Ian and Anthony affair to an entire group of improv comedians, including Shayne Topp, Courtney Miller, Damien Haas, Tommy Bowe, and more (Anthony famously bowed out of the project for a few years, but the prodigal son has returned).
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Smosh has brought back Smosh Summer Games, one of the channel’s most loved hallmarks that feature the cast splitting into chaotic teams to compete in even more chaotic games. This year’s theme is “Class of 2005,” which means your favorite Smosh members are clad in their best Y2K-core fits as they fight for glory in games of study hall relays, giant burrito throws, and darts.
‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’
In preparation for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle’s upcoming cinematic release, I have been slowly binging all four seasons of the hit anime, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
The anime, based on Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga series, centers around Tanjiro Kamado, a bright-eyed teenager whose world falls apart when almost all his family members are slaughtered and eaten by a demon. Tanjiro survives the attack, along with his younger sister Nezuko, who unfortunately has been turned into a demon. Tanjiro then goes on a quest to find a cure for his sister to turn her human again, and along the way, he joins the Demon Slayer Corps in an attempt to defeat the demon king, Muzan Kibutsuji.
Do I sound like a weeb explaining this entire storyline? Yes, I do, but Demon Slayer has so much lore and worldbuilding to it that there’s no way to avoid getting sucked into it. The anime has all the same beats of a classic epic, with the young Tanjiro fighting his way through demons and villains in order to save his sister. It’s not hard to root for him, even as he learns the difficult truth that even the strongest of his demon slayer peers are easily fallible. It’s that never-ending battle between Good and Evil, and if you want to see who makes it out in the end, catch up on the series before the movie hits cinemas on August 20.
‘My Love Will Make You Disappear’
My Love Will Make You Disappear is cheesy with a capital C. This is a good thing, especially if you’re a lover of the classic Filipino romcom movie formula. But director Chad Vidanes’ take on the formula comes with a twist. It follows Sari (Kim Chiu), an unlucky-in-love young woman who believes she’s cursed to make the men she falls in love disappear when she kisses them. Sari’s almost reisgned herself to a life of loneliness and celibacy, but things change when she begins to grow closer to her troubled landlord Jolo (Paulo Avelino).
My Love Will Make You Disappear requires you to suspend all logic, at least for its 1 hour and 44 minute runtime. It’s campy, it’s silly, but at its core, it’s incredibly endearing, and Chiu and Avelino hold up the movie with their unwavering romantic chemistry. If you’re a KimPau fan, expect to have your heart beat even faster when the two of them stare into each other’s eyes, run into each other in the middle of a storm, and crash into each other wearing nothing but teeny, tiny bath towels.
