Life Highlights:
An Eloise Vacation – This winter break the daughterling and I decided to vacation inside the new hotel we watched being built near our house.  We studied their website carefully, wrote ourselves a schedule for our visit, packed up a few clothes, books, and toiletries, and walked over.

Our favorite activity was exploring the hotel, checking to see if the vending machine selections differed from floor to floor — they did — then gazing out each hall window and comparing the view.  The daughterling told me she’s glad to have a "childish mother".  "Child-like," I suggested.  That sounds better, doesn’t it?

We also ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and soaked in the hot tub.  The rest of our stay we lounged in our room, reading books, watching a bit of TV, and eating our room service dessert until it was time to cuddle up in our comfy beds and sleep.

Movies:
Easy A (*** 1/2) – [2010] Socially invisible Olive (Emma Stone) starts with a simple white lie to spare her friend’s feelings and accidently invents an entire tale about an imaginary one-night stand.  The school gossip eavesdropping thinks the story is true and suddenly Olive is thrust into her high school’s spotlight.  When a gay friend asks her to pretend to have sex with him to keep him from getting bullied, she decides she might as well continue getting attention.  As Olive helps more guys build their credibility with fake sex sessions, she starts regretting the type of attention she’s getting.

Olive is a smart, fun character, as are her parents.  The movie does a fairly good job pointing out the hypocrisy in American sexual mores — though the introspection is more glib than truly thoughtful.  Also, the abstinence-only Christians are presented as pretty cartoonish villains.  Still, as mainstream teen films go, this one is smarter and more fun than most. [Watched as an iTunes rental. Rated PG-13.]

Going the Distance (*** 1/2) –  [2010] This is one of the few current romantic comedies that actually seems romantic versus just stereotypically bland and sexist.  Thirty-somethings Erin (Drew Barrymore) and Garrett (Justin Long) cute-meet while playing a video game at a New York bar and hit if off so well that they both want to continue the relationship the next morning.  Both of them know Erin’s only in New York for six more weeks — when her journalism internship ends and she returns to San Francisco to finish her degree — but they decide to see where the relationship will go anyway.  By the end of six weeks, they’re getting along so well they decide to try out a long distance relationship.

Going the Distance is refreshingly realistic about the pitfalls of being apart while managing to be funny and romantic at the same time.  Erin and Garrett seem like actual, well-rounded people and the movie takes both of their careers and points of view seriously.  Instead of the movie simply having the girl give up her life for her boyfriend, the couple grapples with finding a fair solution for both of them or deciding if they should just break up. 

The one flaw to an otherwise enjoyable movie is their stereotypical friends and family.  Though they’re completely unoriginal, they all are well-intentioned, actually seem to care for the main characters, and don’t take up too much of the movie’s time.  [Watched as an iTunes rental. Rated R for language and brief male nudity.]

Scott Pilgrim versus the World (*** 1/2) – [2010] A fun movie about a twenty-something guy (Michael Cera) figuring out relationships.  I never read the graphic novels the movie is based on, but from what I’ve read on the Internet, the movie pares the story down to just Scott’s point of view and leaves out the perspective of Ramona (the girl he’s pursuing). 

Though the women in the story are pretty much just goals or obstacles for Scott, the whole saga told as a video game is awfully charming and entertaining, as well as insightful.  It did go on about 10 minutes longer than my interest held, but I enjoyed its celebration of the 90’s indie music scene all the same.  The playful style reminded me of a modern Wayne’s World.  [Watched as an iTunes rental. Rated PG-13.]