April

Ok this is a super messy post, but it’s already mid May and i haven’t posted it so I will probably clean it up throughout the month but meanwhile you’re getting the .raw file lol.

Films

What a month! 5 films that I rated basically 5 stars! And I did not watch any of these expecting them to be.

Victoria (2015):

The romance in this was made for me, I've never seen anything like it on multiple aspects: the kind of people represented, obviously the 3 hour long one-take, the plot and the characters felt so real it was gripping. Basically, I need this to happen to me...

Anatomy of a Fall (2023):

Expected this one to mess with the fabric of time and reality more, i really thought it would play with the self-awareness of being a film, maybe with some time-travel kind of thing. to be honest not very memorable, but i was engaged watching it nonetheless.

Clerks (1994):

i was aware of how on brand kevin smith would be for me, and i was correct, i absolutely loved the vibes, unseriousness, monologic dialogues. it feels very comfort film and it definitely has become one of mine.

Beau is Afraid:

wanted to put something on to pass the time after an eventful day, sorted my watchlist by longest runtime, this came up. it was an incredible experience i was CAPTIVATEd, i trully think it’s a masterpiece and would gladly rewatch it, i think the third part was the weakest one. the first two were chef's kiss.

The Passenger (2023):

a new favourite, became a new obsession, i couldn’t believe how the first few minutes i kind of got clerks vibes from it just because of the setting and like early 00’s - 90’s adjacent time, and how in this one there’s ALSO a character named randy lmao. i initially felt the way the ending went a little tiny TINY bit disappointing (but that feeling later went away)

Challengers (2024):

went for josh o’connor and zendaya. this is the first movie in a veryyyy long time when i went to the cinema and never checked my phone to look at the time, it was super entertaining and gripping. i loved the music as well and how overbearing it was.

Books

My resolution for this month was to finish the books that I had started since I had 5 that I was “currently reading”, I’m happy to say that I finished 2 of those, being The Nice House on the Lake and Lolita. I realised that even though I was loving reading Lolita, it required some amount of focusing and brain-power, which in parallel to my other reads that were Crime & Punishment, My Struggle, and The Myth of Sisyphus, it was all a little bit too much and might have been the reason as to why I’ve been reading so slowly.

The Nice House on the Lake

My first graphic novel since I became an adult lol, got the recommendation from a booktuber I like, and the vibes were so much my alley that I got the deluxe edition: a group of friends gets invited to an idyllic mansion by a common friend for a holiday stay. everything is so relaxing and perfect, until they check the internet and the world is going up in flames, ending. why are they perfectly fine, and why are they truly here?

This is a character focused story, there are about 12 of them which is confusing, but with a finger kept on the presentation pages, it’s manageable. I loved learning about the friend group and the ‘common friend’. Something I did not know however is that this is not a complete story, the Deluxe edition I got is just all the issues published so far, that make up the first Season. A bit sad, but ‘ill patiently wait for the others.

Fraction

This was BAD. I read this because one of my favourite booktuber said that it was the “goriest” book that she ever read and that it was too much for her. Of course, I can’t just hear this and not be compelled to read it, welp I ended up disappointed.

I think it would have helped a little bit had I know known more about the intention and context of “erogouri’, especially with its relation to absurdism. I understood it was trying to be funny, “grotesque” but everything fell down flat to me. In the first, main, story I could see a good idea with how it plays with form, but it was badly executed, for the visual medium of a manga, the author literally spells out EVERYTHING to you… I found all the stories to not be developed enough. As for the gore, I found it to not be crazy like… There were some good ideas and potential, the one most memorable to me was the man with really thin skin who’s cumming all the time, but in the end, even with how hard this story collection tries, it still fails.

Lolita

read some of Nabokov s letters about 3.5 years ago (wow… feels like yesterday :( ) and fell in love with his writing. after watching a couple videos (one about the different covers of Lolita, and the other being a review from a booktuber I really enjoy), I felt like it was about time I read it. and i loved it! the writing is Stellar, probably the best i’ll ever read, it’s incredibly beautiful and intelligent it almost could feel overwhelming (in a positive way), but I also thought it was a very accessible writing style. The first part was my favourite; I read it during a time when I felt like doing absolutely nothing, I had no motivation to do anything whatsoever, and its provocativeness gripped me and made me want to keep going. The first half of the second part, however, lost me a little bit, it lulls.

As for the disgust, I did feel some during the first few chapters that I truly had to take a pause (which I guess is a good sign I’m not THAT sick lol) and as I got deeper in the story it shifted into a sense of despair, but also wonder, with how Nabokov hits you hard with gut-wrenching one line punches. The way that you’ll be reading multiple pages or paragraphs and then hit by a line that makes the earth shake… To me, that truly is the experience I got out of reading Lolita.

Killers of a certain age

i really thought i would have finished this book but no… i really need to get a grip on my reading, so many books that i’m so interested in (not talking about Killers of a certain age, on the contrary) anyway, picked it up because i wanted something light-hearted, quick to read after finishing Lolita, and one of the few books qualifying as such in my TBR was “Killers of a certain age”. I progressed really fast with it, and it was interesting to see the difference between a prose-heavy book where you focus really on every sentence, have to genuinely make your neurones work, as opposed to a popcorn book. Review to come next month.

It was not even that great it was just so easy on the brain, and sadly it was not very good :( The dialogues were horribly cheesy and the plot mediocre at best. But I found the otherwise general descriptions and overall writing to be fine. It overall read like a ‘good’ self-published original story online. I read a review commenting that the character’s age comes up aalll the time and that was very much true. I also found the politics about justice to be super on the nose. However, it was not all bad, I wanted something light and it delivered on that front. It reminded me of the kind of action-comedy films that I love (like Spy or The Man from UNCLE). In the end I would not recommand unless it sounds exactly like your kind of thing.

Video Games

Welp… in contrast to march where the only thing I pretty much did was consistently play dragon age inquisition, I did not play it AT ALL, not even one minute… The only thing I played a little bit was Thomas Was Alone, but sadly I gave up on it as the controls are terrible for timed jumps (the part where I was stuck at), previously the clunky controls did not bother me as there wasn’t anything like that… until there was. Disappointing.

I’m really excited for INDIKA to come out (as I’m writing this down it has!), I’ve been awaiting this game for a very long time, I don’t even want to see its rating or read its reviews!

Series

I watched the John Wayne Gacy tape miniseries, it was not great and highly forgettable. two years ago i watched the Ted Bundy ones and i thought it was well done, the Gacy ones weren’t on that level but at least i learned a little bit about the whole situation (i had no idea who he was and what he did beyond his name).

also once again, watched a couple episodes of Gilmore girls. the episode where Rory is in the suit, this look has to be my favourite, she looked incredible in it.

AND, I finally continued watching The Durrells. there were some hot days in April that just made me crave proper hot summer days, and since this series nails down these vibes, it's perfect. I had stopped after finishing season 2, and left April about halfway through season 3.

Music

My receipt and my playlist for April: