the devil three times - rickey fayne

state: finished the 17/8/26
i swear i've been reading more books i've just forgotten to log them
so i just finished this book and it was not at all what i expected. i picked it up at the bookstore with no previous information about it whatsoever - just because the cover has bright colors and it said it was southern gothic. i've been recently interested in this genre so i thought, why not. and suddenly i was inside it. the way the author writes is so special - i've never really seen descriptions quite like his. and it's a coral story (i seem to like those type of stories, specially in film), about a family struck in some way by the presence of the devil, a pact someone made generations ago. in the meantime, it talks about identity (specifically black identity), loneliness, growing old, revenge and also slavery, since the first generations are set in the early 19th century. i'll talk more about this in the next entry (trust), but something that stood out to me was the personification of the devil, which is also a thing in the other book i've just finished writing, the brothers karamazov. specially because it is in some way similar to something that happens in a story i'm writing. the devil is human but it's also ever-transforming, shapeshifting, depending on who he talks to. he messes with your mind but isn't really portrayed as evil, though.
also one of the last stories is about a girl who sort of falls in love with an older woman (her teacher) and this was really funny to me. for some reason.

the piano teacher - michael haneke

state: watched the 1/6/26
why is there a 6 month break between one entry and the other bro
anyway i already wrote a review on my letterboxd on this one but it was incredibly short (since i was kind of shocked — i didn't even know what to rate it so i didn't) so i'm going to write a bit more freely on here, since nobody is gonna read it. so my friend and i watched this on theaters but with some kind of discussion afterwards. that was good because some people in the audience seemed to know a lot about the movie. it's extreme, though not explicit, and —as someone in the audience said— everything is so cold it barely feels sexual. because it's about a frustrated and lonely piano teacher who outlets her emotions through p0rn and bdsm. so once a student shows interest in her she becomes really involved, almost throwing herself into his arms. but she does it in a way it looks like she's almost pulling him away — pulling him away but not letting him go. their relationship is fucked up and never works right, she thinks she know what she wants but (spoiler) she realizes it's not what she wants, but what she has made herself want (after consuming so much hardcore p0rn with specific fet1shes and standards). anyway, i laughed throughout the whole movie bc of how shocked i was. well made, but it's too much.

white nights - fyodor dostoevsky

state: finished the 26/12/25
very interesting book - one of the first by dostoevsky and obviously one of the most accessible. to be honest, it's the third book by him that i've started reading, but the first i finish. it's not that i don't like his writing style (i love it, and also his vibe and what he represents) - but my first book by him was demons and that isn't a good book to start by. anyway, i enjoyed the story. it's short and, as is the writer's style, delves into the psychology of lonely and tragic characters, and his descriptions are very good. the dialogue is charming and the story flows pretty well, especially given its length. you get to understand the characters and root for the main character - whose name we're never given.

the portrait of dorian gray - oscar wilde

state: finished the 29/10/25
thankfully my version is uncensored.

the curious case of benjamin button - david fincher (2008)

state: finished the 1/9/25
cate blanchett is so damn pretty here (totally not watching it because of her).

fucking åmål - lukas moodysson (1998)

state: finished the 28/8/25
it's my second time watching this film and i love it just as much as the first. i especially like the way it's shot, with many close-ups, which makes it feel like some sort of documentary or, at least, gives it a realistic and raw quality.
the acting is also pretty good, especially considering the age of most actors (and actresses). the story is fun and develops at a reasonably natural rate, taking into account it's also pretty short.
you can find my review (in spanish) of my first watch here.

bicycle thieves - vittorio de sica (1948)

state: finished the 25/8/25
warning for spoilers.
this film is a classic inside of the italian neorealism. set after the second world war and shot with unprofessional actors, the movie follows a father who, after a long period of unemployment, manages to find a job posting adverts. this job however requires him to have a bike. the bike, as the title suggests, is stolen on his first day. so, with the help of his son, he sets out to search for it.