Change Your Image
hsommers
Reviews
Extreme Cheapskates (2011)
This Show Shames People for Not Spending Money
I've only seen one episode of this show, but I have to say something about it because I found this show annoying.
The people presented on this show are certainly frugal and some of them should probably loosen the old purse strings a bit. Sometimes the drive to save money can become a compulsion and it can have a negative effect on relationships.
But at the same time, the overall message of this show seems to be: "Spend money. Buy stuff new. Don't reuse things or use found objects. Used and discarded things are icky." I think that is bullshit. People who have the discipline to be really frugal and resourceful are great. They're not just consuming and shitting like everyone else. The world would probably be a better place if more people were cheap like these people.
Lolita (1997)
Lolita (1997) Fails to Capture Tone of Nabokov's Work
The 1997 adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita may have emotional appeal and resonance, but it fails to capture the tone of the novel. While it is not necessary for a film to accurately reflect a novel's content (being a different medium), there is usually an effort made to represent the heart, mood, or overall theme of the adapted work. Nabokov's Humbert is an unreliable narrator, a self-aggrandizing, pathetically pompous man. The dark humour of the novel is evoked by the reader's awareness that Humbert is a joke. The reader has access to Humbert's private thoughts and must infer what's really happening. The reader's inferences and judgments make the novel a grim pleasure to read. The novel is tragically comic, not merely tragic. In contrast, Lyne's Humbert, as portrayed by Jeremy Irons is put forth as a melancholy romantic who may be lying to himself, but is ultimately a more sympathetic character. Lyne's adaptation has characterized itself as more faithful to Nabokov's work, but it is only so in word alone. This failure to fully realize the character of Humbert as the ponce that he is turns the 1997 adaptation into a tragic romance, eliminating the truth conveyed regarding human folly and deception put forth in the original work.