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 become 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 video release you should own (physical media is now available!), we hope it can ease the burden of selecting which streaming platform to use or discover a new cinematic odyssey.
This week, we obsessed over The Smashing Machine and how it just proves that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is an all-around Renaissance Man. Underwater and Alien: Earth are both sci-fi delights that can help you kick off the month of Halloween just right. Phantom Thread is the perfect, toxic love affair to turn to, especially if you’re in need of more Paul Thomas Anderson content after seeing One Battle After Another. For those looking for a more pensive type of romance, turn to Gitling; for those looking for a bonkers type of romance, turn to Beauty in a Bottle. And for those just looking for an easy, funny watch, there’s Smosh Reads Reddit Stories.
The Smashing Machine
Mixed martial arts, a lot of drama, and a killer soundtrack
Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine marks his first solo directorial effort after years of collaborating with his brother, Josh Safdie, delivering a sports biopic that sidesteps clichés.
The film follows UFC fighter and pioneer Mark Kerr, portrayed by Dwayne Johnson in his most compelling role yet, as he battles drug addiction, personal turmoil, and the pressures of a rising sport. Emily Blunt plays Dawn Staples, Kerr’s girlfriend, grounding the film’s emotional core.
With a jazz-leaning score punctuated by saxophones and needle drops from Frank Sinatra to Cleaners from Venus, The Smashing Machine proves gripping even for audiences beyond the genre of mixed martial arts or sports drama. — Elijah Pareño
Underwater
An underrated Lovecraftian gem that demands to be watched
We’re starting Spooktober right with William Eubank’s Underwater. The science-fiction horror film turned five this year, and even though it was released during the wildlands of January — months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the entire world — it still holds up quite well. If you’re just looking for a good 95 minutes to watch something entertaining, Underwater is just for you.
Underwater is Eubank’s take on Alien and The Abyss, a creature feature that takes us deep into a research and drilling station in the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest trench. Kristen Stewart leads a capable cast placed under duress when an earthquake, supposedly, hits the station, and what’s left of the crew has to walk underwater to reach the last station that’s still standing. The action starts right away, with quite memorable sequences that could lead you to thinking, “So, this is what happened to the folks at the submersible implosion.” A Lovecraftian monster appears at the end, providing one of the best creature reveals in recent film history. — Don Jaucian
Phantom Thread
A luscious portrait of a toxic relationship
The urge to revisit Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography after watching One Battle After Another is only normal. With only 10 films to his name, starting with Hard Eight in 1996, Anderson’s inventive storytelling reached its peak in Phantom Thread (2017), an Oscar-nominated wonderbook of elaborate gowns, exquisite mansions, and enraging toxic relationships that had me gasping until the last scene.
The film tells the story of Alma (Vicky Krieps), suddenly smitten by high society designer Reynolds Woodcock (unfortunately named like Sean Penn’s Lockjaw in One Battle After Another). Woodcock joins Anderson’s usual band of unmerry and wounded characters — the ensembles in Boogie Nights and Magnolia, to name a few — but this time, the film’s antihero is emotionally guarded, repressed, but achingly romantic. Alma becomes the perfect foil for Woodcock. She is as dedicated and determined as a toxic lover can be. P
hantom Thread may have unlikable characters at the fore, but Anderson creates such a ravishing picture that it’s almost a sin to turn away from the screen. — Don Jaucian
Gitling
So many languages, and yet so much left unsaid
When Jopy Arnaldo’s Gitling came out in 2023, some Filipino film enthusiasts touted it as the country’s response to Celine Song’s the-one-that-got-away romance Past Lives, which was also released that year. While this comparison can’t be helped, it’s an unjust appreciation of the film, and I believe Gitling’s recent JuanFlix release gives it the chance to really shine on its own.
Cinemalaya 2023’s Best Screenplay winner centers around translator Jamie Lazaro (Gabby Padilla) and Japanese filmmaker Makoto Kanno (Ken Yamamura), who are in Bacolod to write an Ilonggo translation of Makoto’s film. The two navigate five languages: English, Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Nihongo, and Jamie’s made-up “Jamie-speak.” Here, subtitles aren’t optional. The text is color-coded to denote language, and even appears in moments of silence, demanding that the audience make sense of what is unspoken. —Pie Gonzaga
Alien: Earth finale
A “hopeful” end to a bloody chapter
Something doesn’t sit right with the final episode of Alien: Earth’s first season. No, it isn’t because it’s a bad finale — far from it, especially seeing as it’s one of the gorier, darker, and arguably more hopeful of showrunner Noah Hawley’s episodic take on the Alien universe. The future looks bright for Boy Kavalier’s (Samuel Blenkin) Lost Boys. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and her brother Joe (Alex Lawther) might just get the family life they so desire. The aliens have gone forth and multiplied. We’ve finally figured out what that plant monster can do (and how fast it can be).
But despite the episode’s hope cutting through the rest of the season’s doom and gloom, there’s this unshakeable feeling that the hope is fleeting. Hawley, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, confirming that a second and third seasons are definitely in the realm of possibility, described the uneasiness best: “This chapter is closed, but… The balance of power has shifted. These children have no idea what’s coming.” —Mel Wang
Smosh Reads Reddit Stories
For when your brain is itchy
If you need to turn your brain off for a few hours and give yourself a good reminder of how weird strangers on the Internet can be, I recommend a good, long binge watch of the YouTube/podcast series, Smosh Reads Reddit Stories.
The premise, so elegant in its simplicity, is already in the title. A gaggle of Smosh cast members, led by Shayne Topp, gather around a couch and read through entries in classic subreddits like Am I the Asshole? and Today I Fucked Up. As a team, they pick apart “real-life” stories of people getting caught in the stickiest of pickles, such as a loose-bowelled job candidate relieving themselves halfway through an interview, a peanut butter lover accidentally lying about being a nut allergy for six years, and a teenager throwing a tantrum over her girlfriend finding more four-leaf clovers than her. Welcome to the Internet. —Mel Wang
Beauty in a Bottle
Antoinette Jadaone’s zany look at female insecurities
Beyond Angelica Panganiban’s iconic line pretty much carrying the whole movie (for which we are eternally grateful), Beauty in a Bottle has endured as one of director Antoinette Jadaone’s zaniest and most light-hearted romantic-comedies. 11 years later and it continues to tap into how insecure women are still made to feel about our age, looks, bodies, and place in a heterosexual relationship. But that’s making the movie sound heavy: Assunta De Rossi kills it as a marketing girlboss, Angeline Quinto is hilarious when up against her soon-to-be mother-in-law, and Angelica Panganiban is an all-too-relatable blessing. —Mel Wang
