Funny Convenience Store Photo Where Woman Is on Mans Shoulders and Clerk Is Shocked
A sweet little masterpiece
I attended the world premiere of "Cashback" at the Toronto International Film Festival. I walked out in a daze. I had a feeling I'd seen something special, that moment when you have to pause to take a breath and reflect on what you've experienced. I still had about 20 films to go at the time, and "Cashback" raised the bar and became the benchmark against which all the others would have to be compared. As it turned out, nothing came close. Of the 30 plus films I saw that week, "Cashback" tops the list.
Literally built around the short film of the same name which screened at festivals in 2004, triple threat writer/director/producer Sean Ellis did something ingenious. Rather than take his 20 minute piece and expand it to fill 90 minutes, he created a new Act One and Act Three to bookend a reworking of the original short in the center. And he pulled it off with a tour de force of light and sound. The result is an eerie, compelling twist on the classic Outer Limits episode where time stops while the protagonist weaves in and out of the frozen characters in another dimension. It may sound like sci-fi, but this is a sweet romantic comedy whose storyline is among the most original I've ever seen on screen. The concept is brilliant and the result magnificent.
The look is lush, cinematography by Angus Hudson breathtaking, and "Cashback" features an appropriately sweet score. They combine to give this low budget project a big movie feel, destined for the wide audience it deserves.
Most of all, I believe "Cashback" is the vehicle which will introduce newcomer Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood of "Harry Potter") to the world. His star tun in this film as protagonist Ben Willis left me speechless. The camera loves him, and he is on screen virtually from opening to closing credits. This film is his to make or break. It rests on his shoulders, and he owns the material.
As they say, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and I walked out with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face. And no other film I saw at the Toronto Film Festival did that to me. "Cashback" is a sweet little masterpiece.
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To see beauty in everything
A guy and his girl break up. Painfully. As a result of this the guy becomes an insomniac and suddenly finds himself with 8 more hours in the day. 8 more hours in which he feels the pain of love gone sour. 8 more hours to be bored and restless. He decides to make the best of it and starts working the night shift in a supermarket where he is met with a new kind of boredom and several people that deal with that boredom in different ways. Himself adding yet another way of dealing with that boredom. He imagines he can stop time. What follows is best seen instead of read about.
This film is filled to the rim with the most beautiful stills, completed with several speeds of motion and feels right. Right in an artistically way. It is like watching a painting being painted,, like watching a poem being written, like listening to a song being composed. And at the end it all adds up and the completed picture is seen in all its beauty. All in all a really nicely designed film that belongs in the small theaters and in the art-houses.
Next to that it is fun to watch. The adventures of the guy are interesting to follow, even though they aren't all that different from what most people go through at one or other stage of life. Music choice was very fitting and acting was good enough not to be falling out of place with the rest. So, all in all, a very pleasurable watch and something I can recommend to anyone.
9 out of 10 sketches sketched
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I kept smiling like an idiot
What an intense and creative film this is and what a treat it was to have the charming Sean Biggerstaff present it at the Stockholm International Film Festival. He is proud of 'Cashback', and rightly so – for you will be pressed to find a prettier fantasy or funnier characters in a film this year.
'Cashback' is director Sean Ellis' debut feature and he recreates the atmosphere of his same-titled short film with deft strokes, breathing life into a fantasy movie masking as a romantic comedy. Do not write it off on the basis of this negatively-connoted label, rather see it as a creative drama that delivers comedy by the bucketload. The fact is that 'Cashback' delves deep into the emotions of its protagonist Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff) much like a drama. It opens with his girlfriend dumping him, screaming and throwing things. In the following weeks, Ben suffers from insomnia and thus finds that he has eight extra hours at his disposal. To pass the time, he works the dreary nightshift at Sainsbury's.
The supermarket job is mundane at first but soon offers an outlet for Ben's creative side. As an art student, he learns to find the beauty in still images every second of the day. This includes the unspeakable beauty in a spilled bag of green peas on aisle four. It also includes freezing time and undressing women (Ben finds great source of interest in the female form), arguably the film's most intense sequences. Here there is a kind of seamless intercutting of scenes, scenery, flashbacks, reality and fantasy that all melt together fluently as the director navigates through Ben's life and thoughts. The latter soothingly narrates the course of events, which cements his likability as a central character.
The unspeakable beauty in the dreamy cinematography is rivalled only by the other side of the tapestry – the comedy. I was rather unprepared for this diversion into hilarity, and expected Cashback to be a drama. Naturally, the amount of well-placed comedy floored my low expectations. In the front row for hilarity sits Ben's two colleagues at Sainsbury's, whom he introduces in brilliant ways. These are two dumb and goofy guys in their late teens who pass their time doing pranks and acting like idiots, such as smuggling sex toys in women's shopping bags at Sainsbury's and guffawing at the effect when she sees it and picks it up. The passing of time indeed proves a central theme in 'Cashback'.
But there is a wide array of noteworthy performances from the supporting cast, not just in Barry and Matt. Ben's boss also proves a massive crowd-pleaser and the level of seriousness which he applies to situations (such as the mighty football tournaments between supermarkets) is a goldmine for comedy. As ever, there is a romantic interest (Emilia Fox) – a girl who works at the same supermarket during the same shifts – who is the film's most likable and interesting character, bar none. My theatre audience also demanded Sean Biggerstaff on some info on this lovely actress.
It needs to be said that 'Cashback' is a sexually aggressive film with plenty of nudity and stories of sexual awakening. All women are also suspiciously attractive (it has often been brought up, beamed Biggerstaff in the Q&A session). It's funny, it's sexy and it's sweet – puffed full of insights in Ben's narration. Better yet, it is a surprisingly ambitious film that strikes me more as a mainstream feature than quirky indie fare (if it wasn't for the nudity). For instance, the classical score is so epic and well-fitted that it sounds like it belongs in 'Gladiator' or any other high-profile sweeping epic. For that matter, Sean Ellis has worked in a homage to the latter at one point when the boss gives a rallying speech during the football tournament, telling his employers to think of him 'as Russell Crowe'.
The film has only two faults as far as I can see it: its wildly unfocused story and its slightly cheesy ending. The former did not prove a problem or a distraction, but rather made it feel like 'Cashback' attempted a lot of different story lines and detours and diversions. That said, I can see how it could be considered a problem. The ending discards some of the unpredictable magic by tipping into saccharine but it is nothing fatal. The fact is that Cashback is a remarkable film in both comedy and drama aspects and I urge you to watch it if you are even a slight fan of Biggerstaff.
9 out of 10
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Magic, simple genius with amazing perspectives
Amazing camera work, wonderful acting, surreal characters in a very interesting story. Who would throw these characters together in the same story? An amazing stretch of imagination and story telling. Yet somehow it all fits in a blissfully overwhelming joy of not really knowing how it all happened but grateful that it did.
I could actually see this really happening except for the time shifting and the fact that all the women are stunning. The story rings true.
I felt at the end of the movie that the film maker had given me a glimpse of what it must be like to be an extremely talented artist in the midst of varying degrees of angst, joy, despair and creativity. Thank you for this movie.
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I grooved to it
Our hero is a dorky art student, newly and painfully broken up with his girlfriend, attempting to find something to fill his sleepless nights. He goes to work at a grocery store, where his imagination and eccentric coworkers help him through the breakup and put a little romance back into his life.
There is some artistic nudity, where our protagonist sketches various men and women in the buff; none of it seems gratuitous, it's just one more part of the film. I'm a big fan of artistic nudity, although I have to admit I've never been able to get chicks to strip down in the supermarket as they do in this film. It's a talent, certainly, that every man could use.
Overall, it's a slightly offbeat romantic comedy of the sort we could use more of. Not formulaic, not predictable, but enjoyable and entertaining. I watched it with my girlfriend, who refused to pose artistically afterwards, but you can't have everything. I've noticed that romantic movies don't necessarily translate into romantic activities for the people watching them; there should be a category of movies that does so, although I don't know what it would be.
All in all, it's a good date movie, good couch movie, just a good movie to watch when you're in the mood for something lighthearted and quirky.
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She caught the wrong second of a two-second story.
Warning: Spoilers
Cashback is engaging and humorous with perks, though rather empty all said and done.
An artistic and silly form of insomnia and freezing time, though yielding a laugh through its secondary characters and mundane day to day. Got to add, the kid versions of themselves look nothing alike.
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"You just have to see that love is wrapped in beauty and hidden away in between the seconds of your life. If you don't stop for a minute, you might miss it"
You find the most beautiful films when you least expect it. Yesterday I went to the Sneak Preview in the local cinema and I came out happier then I've been in weeks. Cashback is an odd combination of teen comedy and romance and the best thing is that it works! The story involves around Ben, an art student. He just had a rough (literally and figurative) break-up with Suzy. Ben has problems to forget Suzy. He can't sleep anymore and is emotionally broken. To speed up the eight hours he used to sleep, he starts working night shifts at Sainsbury's. The film follows Ben's process of dealing with his broken heart, while he is working with his silly colleagues.
Effectively the film also tells the story about Ben's past which shows how his fascination with the female body began and how those things formed the way he thinks about things now. While working in the supermarket he likes to freeze time, to capture the beauty of little things, and to draw pictures of the (naked) female customers.
This film is not about sex and teen jokes as some people probably will say. It is about having a broken heart, finding new love, finding someone that is the perfect other half of you. It is about beauty. The scenes where everything but Ben is frozen and he walks around the store drawing the portraits of the women just strike the right chord. Sean Ellis did a great job to make those scenes look that perfect. It's his ode to the female body.
All I can say is that everybody should go and see this film. It's the best thing I've seen in a long, long time.
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Drifting at times, has some moments, and with a rather magical closing
Warning: Spoilers
This 2006 feature length movie began life in 2004 as a 20-minute short film that won a few awards as well as a nomination for an Oscar. Riding on its own success, the earlier version was expanded, retaining the two leads Sean Biggerstaff (playing Ben) and Emilia Fox (playing Sharon).
The story is what every teenage boy can easily identify with, about breaking up and finding love again. It may well turn out to be an American-Pie type of tasteless, sex- obsessed, mindless flick. In fact, it does have all the essential elements. But the movie makers cleverly balance them with aesthetic touched. While Ben, in his fantasy, freezes and undresses the shapely patrons in the supermarket he works in, we see him as an art student concentrating on sketching them as if they were nude models in the studio.
The movie is often slow to the extent of being telltale of its origin – that is, an expansion from a short film. But there are also inspired moments, such as the sequence of all the characters getting ready in front of a mirror for a big party. The ending shots are beautiful, closing the movie in a magical note.
Opera arias are used liberally for background music, something that seems to have become more and more popular in movies. In addition, to create a majestic mood (for comical effects, however), excerpts from "Jupiter" in The Planet Suite is heard when a soccer team falling behind 0 to 26 in the last minute of the game gets into a huddle vowing to score at least one goal before the game is over.
Despite the 9 years between them, the two British leads are splendid and do have chemistry between them. Sean Biggerstaff, who has appeared in a couple Harry Potter movies, brings out the charm of the introvert, easy-going young man Ben who has considerable artistic talent. Emilia Fox has a face and a persona that soothe rather than excite you, which is perfect for Sharon. She has appeared in The Pianist playing opposite award-winning Adrien Brody. She has also appeared in a couple of films between the two "Cashback"s, including Maggie Smith's "Keeping mum".
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Finding Beauty
tedg 15 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Finally, a successful, cinematic guy date movie. Well, sorta.
Its a great cinematic experience. That's primarily what I liked and what I talked about.
To make this a success, they added two other, rather unrelated parts. One is the amusing secondary characters they insert to make us laugh and to divert attention. This is so common these days that we expect it in big studio productions. It's even written and sometimes directed by someone other than the original filmmaker. Here is it blatantly inserted. We allow it because it is amusing. We laugh. But it does actually distract from the really cool value this thing has to offer.
The second thing is the date movie form. I do not know if this was in the original short or not. It is dismayingly formulaic: guy falls for and wins girl; guy loses girl because of misunderstanding; guy wins girl back in public. Its more than just boring, its a concession to the ordinary that undermines the whole project. Shame on the filmmaker. The one concession is that unlike the amusing guys in the background, this is somewhat integrated into the special stuff.
That special stuff is the notion of art, a notion of an artist (much mentioned here) whose gift is to see beauty in ordinary things, reveal it to the woman (if she is the beauty) — which is a wondrous thing indeed, and to convey it to others.
It is, in fact true of both our main character and the filmmaker. In the film, the deal is that a young artist is so bereft from losing his girlfriend that he starts to see the work in cinematic terms — and novel cinematic terms at that. He is able to "stop time" and examine the intrinsic beauty that happens to have appeared. Once this is a bag of spilled peas. Usually it is the women who visit the store to shop at night.
Now, there is a cheat here. All of the women. Every one of the women, even an older art gallery owner (who, in self-referential mode is the film's producer), are beautiful in a spectacularly obvious way, without special glasses. Yet, we loss over that because the narration (who is cinematically reified) makes clear that the eyes through which we see this are the eyes of an artist who:
— desperately wants to see beauty to make his life worth living.
— specifically thinks women's bodies are the ultimate expression of perfect beauty
— has the ability to enter a scene outside the film, freezing it so as to examine it for its beauty and capture it in drawings.
Hence, we see him as a young boy, encountering the visual mysteries of special surfaces and places. We see him internally as discussing the nature of bodily encounter with his typical but goofy friend. And we see him exploring his environment as we men often do: undressing the women around us in search of those heavenly forms and expressive offering through being. We actually see him undressing them, which is the cinematic shock. It worked for me. It mattered. I would have climbed mountains to know this vision if I knew what it would be.
Bless this filmmaker for having such a perfect visions — one that I would call voyeuristically folded, one that seems visually novel. Shame, shame on him for tarting it up with ordinary stuff to make it palatable to those who shouldn't matter in the world.
Celebration and shame. Love of women and discomfort for looking so deeply. Being intrinsically lonely and being reminded so.
Perfect. When it comes to couples, perfect.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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The bad news is that time flies. The good news... is that you're the pilot.
How many can stare at some spilled peas on the floor and find beauty. With this film, you may never look at still life the same again.
How do you fill the time that is flying by. We may not have the ability to freeze it and just enjoy the beauty of nature, but maybe we can spend some more of it appreciating life's beauty.
The cinematography and music really captivated me and set the mood long before the ingenious freezing sequence. It made the nudity something to be appreciated and enjoyed, not some cheesy titillation.
Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) is creating this world after breaking up with his girl (Michelle Ryan). There are a lot of laughs in the film with other supermarket employees, who are really interesting characters. There are flashbacks to Ben's childhood that provide other very interesting moments. Hayley-Marie Coppin, for one. But, it is not until Ben and Sharon (Emilia Fox) start seeing each other that his life starts to get back to normal.
Everything is not all smooth from then on out, and we get to see the same scene with Sharon that we saw with Suzy in the beginning. It was very original. It is what happens in life when we see one second of a two-second story.
But, the moment when Sharon walks into the Proud Gallery was just precious, and you knew things would work out.
A magical ending to a great film by Sean Ellis leaves us wanting MORE!
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erratic, uneven, with moments of pure genius
Sean Ellis loves women.
Never met the man, probably never will, but that was the #1 takeaway from this uneven but thoroughly interesting film.
Lots of layered construction in the story.
Borrows from the Forgetting Sarah Marshall meme, starts with the protagonist losing his main love, that is the setup for all that follows.
Borrows from THE GIRL THE GOLD WATCH AND EVERYTHING, using the "time freeze" technique to sync up the viewer and the exposition.
Borrows from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, using a probing sort of voice-over to fill in the uneven parts of the story, as with the time freezing (see above) But most of all, when you leave the theatre (or turn off the DVD) if you think about this film at all -- and you may -- what you will remember most are the orations on the beauty of women and the joy of discovery thereof, along with related ideas on how the nature of the female form may not itself be the original art form...? Very uneven -- all the fun parts are off the top, by the half-way point you might be excused for thinking you had stumbled into a regular run of the mill romcom.
Fox steals her scenes, exactly as one might expect.
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Has an interesting premise, and some entertainment value.
Warning: Spoilers
Anyone offended by frank and explicit female nudity, from several different angles, should avoid this movie, even though it is a romantic comedy.
Set in England with British actors, the title has two references in the movie, which takes place largely in a supermarket and among its employees. When customers pay with some type of debit card, they are asked if they want any "cash back." Also, character Ben Willis, in art college, can't sleep after his girlfriend dumps him, so he gets a night shift job at the supermarket, making use of that otherwise useless 8 hours, and for his efforts gets "cash back."
Also, two years prior to this feature length movie was the original award-winning 18-minute short film "Cashback", so this movie is the lengthened version of the same story.
Sean Biggerstaff is Ben Willis, art student who gets dumped. The cashier at the supermarket is Emilia Fox as Sharon Pintey, and they take a liking to each other. Really beautiful Michelle Ryan, who briefly starred in the US TV series "Bionic Woman", is Suzy, the girlfriend who dumps Ben.
The movie has a very unique premise, Ben can seemingly stop time, where everything around him freezes until he puts his hands together and "cracks" his fingers. For a few minutes, or days. Having been curious since a small boy about the female figure, he stops time in the supermarket and partially undresses the pretty ladies and draws them, and of course putting all their garments back in order before he resumes time.
It is not totally clear whether he is really stopping time, which would be a fantasy element, but it appears that he is, otherwise he wouldn't have had time to draw all the nice, complex drawings he made.
Very interesting and entertaining movie, if seeing female nudity doesn't bother you.
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Very deep and enlightening, and fun. Brilliant.
This is actually a philosophical movie that tries to explain one of the most eternal questions: "What is love?" The insight, thoughts and descriptions in this subject, are very interesting.
With a lot of nudity, humor and nonsense, the movie is never boring, and always keeps you in touch with the characters and their thoughts.
Cashback depicts love as a very much OCD thing. An aching, never quenching drive and thirst for your loved one. Along with fulfilling each others dreams. Very romantic, maybe just a little bit too romantic and perfect. Then again maybe i'm the skeptic.
Enjoy, the thinking part will follow instinctively if you're a thinker.
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A Nutshell Review: Cashback
How can anyone miss the poster for Cashback? Featuring a beautiful blonde in a supermarket who's almost naked from the waist up, her modesty protected by the words of the title, I guess you're forgiven if you mistake this for some low brow sex movie. But Cashback is anything but low brow, and sex is just a small part of the equation. Based on a short film of the same name written and directed by Sean Ellis, this is easily one of my favourite movies this year. It's intelligent, sexy, and nothing as raunchy as the poster would suggest, but full of little elements of surprises that connected, some of which are wickedly naughty.
Cashback is a beautiful romantic comedy, filled with fantastical bits which elevated it to another plane altogether. There are some technically brilliant transitional and special effects that do make you go wild, but at its core, it's the story it had to tell that truly wowed me. Although it's a romantic film, it's firmly rooted in the pain of a breakup. Anyone who's gone through one, will know that feeling of despair, and hopelessness that life seem to have taken a turn into. And our protagonist Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff) is such, when we witness his (literally) painful split with his girl Suzy (Michelle Ryan).
For the first 10 minutes, I could totally identify with Ben, his thought processes, feelings, and his suffering. Ben suffered from insomnia, and is trying hard to find ways to pass the time. Since he couldn't sleep, he found the perfect win-win solution, and that is to utilize the time to earn some money, cashback, if you will, for services rendered. It's about finding our own space to pass time, to keep ourselves occupied, and to while away the idle moments instead of wasting time thinking about the what-ifs. Getting cashback of course is an incentive, but never the prime motivation. I could tell you all about the setting up of A Nutshell Review, but that's another story (along the same veins) for another day.
Like my other favourite British movie of this year (Hot Fuzz), Cashback has its primary setting in a supermarket, where Ben ends up in, working the graveyard hours of a 24hrs chain. Thanks to its quirky manager and madcap co-workers, there's no lack of shenanigans that they get themselves into, and we spend time with Ben as he explores and studies how each of them deals with the mundaneness of their lives. And a supermarket checkout girl, Sharon Pintey (Emilia Fox), catches his attention, but is he ready to embark on another round of relationship?
Cashback has plenty of keen observations of love and life in general, coupled with its witty dialogue and dark sense of humour. But it's not rapid-fire pacing all the way, as the quiet and contemplative moments far outweigh those scenes, and pave the way for some meditation within yourself. Like I said, I found the story easy to connect to, and these moments allowed some time to ponder and draw parallels. The last third of the movie is simply powerful, and coupled with Ben's imaginative ability (which I will not reveal just what), it totally moved me, and sounds out some sliver of hope.
And what of the nudity? Sure it was slightly edited here, but I thought there's nothing to fuss about. It's true that the female form is beautiful, and this film provides that sense of appreciation through Ben's artistic talent (and of course, the camera angles, the lingering moments, etc). It's lovely, but never in a pornographic way, Think of it as visiting a nude art gallery, and you get the drift of how nudity's treated in the movie.
With an excellent soundtrack to accompany the story, I felt that Cashback has all the ingredients of a hit movie, with a strong story, wonderful characterization (a mixture of key characters and caricatures) and absolutely lovely production values. For those who's fallen out of love, Ben is certainly someone whom you'll root for to pull himself out of the rut, and one whom you'll encourage to embark on another romantic journey in all earnestness with a person he fancies, contrary to the advice given by his best friend who seem to have a problem eating his own cooking, so to speak.
While it's a piece about the dread in relationships, of breaking up, what you do and how you handle the pain, it also comes with a picture of hope. It's a simple story, yet emotionally powerful without being overly sentimental, predictable or cheesy. I've so many favourite moments in this movie, that I'll be more than tempted to buy the DVD when it's out. And it certainly is a strong contender for my movie of the year 2007! Highly recommended, and you must watch this film before it disappears from our screens!
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About as intelligent as a nude porn mag.
I recently watched the 17 minute short of Cashback and for the life of me, i cannot explain the 7.5 rating on IMDb. The film is just an adolescent, leery production that was no more intelligent or thought provoking than flicking to page 3 of a UK red top newspaper. The dialogue about the clock watching i could identify with but the overall message is grotty and ill conceived. In a world where beauty is seen mostly seen as only being skin deep, this film does nothing to dispel or encourage any other kind of thinking. The film thinks it's being clever but anything but. Its obvious and foul in the way it looks at how men view women as nothing more sex objects. This is the film equivalent of six builders having a tea break,wolf whistling and shouting like apes at any unfortunate young female passer by. If this film struck a chord with you, you're the sort of person i don't want to know. Awful, awful , awful!!!
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Wasn't great, but it has class
For a romantic movie, this is really good. It isn't really a romantic movie, it is more of a introspective view of reality, based around the story of a supermarket clerk who can't sleep and dreams of being a painter. But the romance comes so easily and the way the movie is made is truly artistic.
However, if you expect something really active, with lots of fun and conveyor belt kiss and tears scenes, you will find this lacking. It is not a film about boy meets girl, rather one of finding oneself and seeing the world around with new, open eyes.
Bottom line: a nice film, a bit boring at times, but ultimately worth it. The last few lines are the best part of the film, they make you understand what was the message the writer wanted to transmit and makes you understand some of the more seemingly irrelevant parts of the movie.
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Surprised!
Warning: Spoilers
I'm usually not a big fan of romantic films but since this flick was highly recommended I decided to take a chance.And boy was I surprised! Cashback focuses on art student Ben Willis who had just had a stormy break-up with his girlfriend.Unable to get over it,he develops insomnia.To kill time,he starts to work at the local supermarket.There,his artistic side and his fascination of the female body starts to work overtime.There are also quirky characters such as Ben's two co-workers,an eccentric boss and a female colleague which he eventually falls for.Also not mentioning his promiscuous best friend.
Cashback has both elements of drama and comedy.The intensity of the film goes high but the comedy also reminds you to have a good time.The experiences faced by Ben are realistic and that's what makes this movie good.His ability to freeze time and undressing women in the supermarket adds something unique(wish i had that ability too)to this indie gem.Ben's colleagues at the supermarket are hilarious with their zany pranks..The love story between Ben and Sharon (his female colleague) unravels in the second half quite nicely at that.
There are some clichés however,only towards the ending but who cares?..Cashback was definitely a surprise, a unique perspective of life,love and everything between for Ben Willis.Worth-watching.
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A Clever Comedic Contemplation
There are quite a few negative reviews of this film, but the overall score is good. One reason for that could be that this film transforms as it plays out.
At first I thought I was watching a rather juvenile comedy, filled with misogynistic sexual references and noisy bodily functions. And the voice over made me wonder if this film could be more than a too obvious snoozefest. But then it turned into a conversation about aesthetics, then a philosophical contemplation, then a mystery, then a romance.
The actors all played their parts well. The photography was imaginative. The music was one of the best parts of this film.
I especially liked the way his "stopping time" was analogous to remembering a moment and to capturing a moment in art.
The ending line is ripped straight from Ferris Bueller. That was a little annoying, but then again maybe it was an homage.
Cashback is a fun film. Just don't take it too seriously.
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A superficial man's desperate attempt to seem "deep"
This film is absolutely LAUGHABLE. It screams of a young art student's desperate attempt to say something meaningful but actually has only the dumbest, most base things to say.
The film's hilariously pretentious and meaningless tagline is "Sometimes love is hiding between the seconds of your life". Make no sense to you on a first read? Good, because it makes no sense after you have seen the film either.
The protagonist in this piece of drivel is an aspiring artist (of course he is) who works in a menial job stacking shelves at a supermarket (ah, the under-appreciation budding artists out there - breaks your heart, doesn't it?) To relieve the tedium of his job, he pretends he can "freeze time" and appreciate the beauty all around him. This is where the film really starts to bite. How does this insightful young man appreciate beauty? What wondrous things can he see that we ordinary folk fail to? Titties!!! Basically, he walks around mentally stripping women in the supermarket and contemplating their bodies. Hilarious. What a GENIUS!!! This wouldn't even be so bad if he was discovering some kind of "hidden beauty" or something all human beings share but is easily overlooked. But no! The only inhabitants of this Sainsbury are Page 3 bikini models! That's right - all perfectly formed, 19-24 year old stunners; waxed, toned and in perfect condition. One of the customers is even KEELEY - the famous Sun topless model. I mean you are JOKING, aren't you? This is a 13 year old boy's idea of "hidden beauty"!!! I won't bother discussing the rest of the woeful storyline that serves as a plot, suffice to say that when our young boy genius walks into a professional art gallery, the owner is immediately dazzled by his mediocre sketches and indicates that he has a big future. Yup, that's just how it happens in real life! If you find this movie interesting or profound, you truly are as ignorant and facile as the director.
Disgracefully bad.
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A rare film that really stands out!
Having seen the film a few times, I can really say: 'I don't think there is a person out there who wouldn't enjoy watching this great piece. It's a formula that works beautifully. It is cool - without being pretentious. It is beautiful and sexy - without being cheesy. Very few films touch a chord in you. This film certainly does that. I think, those individuals who express a lot of negativity towards the film - have issues. Deal with them first - then watch the film. Being a regular cinema visitor and very familiar with the standard of films we get fed, I can happily and confidently confirm that this film is a gem that really shines!
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Not a chick flick
It's a philosophical film for men, and for the few women that are capable of understanding men and art.
The nudity is important to the story, but is not erotic.
It is beautifully unabashed, ponderous, and accurate.
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Insomnia Rules
After breaking up with his girlfriend, an art student can't sleep (for weeks!) and finds a job at an all-night supermarket in London. He also has this amazing power to freeze the world (at least in his mind) so he can take his time drawing what interests him, mainly the naked female form. Biggerstaff is likable as the young man with insecurities while Fox nicely plays the lovely lass he meets at work. The stylish direction of Ellis, who also wrote the story, expanding a short he had made a couple of years earlier, infuses the film with a sense of freshness. There is a memorable flashback scene featuring the artist as a young boy and a Swedish exchange student.
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What could be creepy works very well
The major premise of this movie is fundamentally something that in other hands would be creepy, but in this case, it is so well done that it leads to a love story. Ben Willis is a student at an art college, and he is involved in a nasty breakup with his girlfriend. This leads to a major bout of insomnia where he does not sleep at all for days. In order to make something positive out of this condition, he takes a night shift job at a local supermarket. His co-workers are a strange lot that engage in many activities in an attempt to alleviate the boredom of working nights. Ben discovers that he has a strange power, he is able to freeze time, where every person and object but Ben is locked into position until he restarts the universe by cracking his hands. During the period where time is frozen, Ben can manipulate the objects, moving and adjusting them. In one segment, he locks the supermarket in place and then goes down an aisle, disrobing the women and then making detailed sketches of them. He does so in order to capture their beauty and he carefully puts their clothing back in place before he restarts time. In other circumstances, this would be incredibly creepy, but it is so well done that you feel for Ben as he struggles to make something of himself. Ben comes across as being truly interested in the women as an artist and not as a voyeur. There is also a bit character named Natalie that fulfills the fantasy of nearly every boy slightly north of 10. For a small amount of money, she will drop her underwear and then lift her skirt in order to give a boy an extended flash. There is a happy ending, but it takes some effort and convolutions to get there. The performances of all the characters are superb and complement each other very well. Ben's best friend is one of the most memorable bad-boy supporting characters of all time. While he may not have any redeeming qualities, he is essential to making the story work.
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Great Light Comedy
Warning: Spoilers
Originally a short film is was skilfully expanded into a feature first time director Sean Ellis. I think British films find producing comedy a bit difficult but this one is not bad light comedy. The story is about an artist Ben Willis who cannot sleep after his separation with his girlfriend. He decides to get a job as a night packer in a supermarket.
As a consequence of his vivid imagination he freezes moments of time in his imagination when he sees attractive females and imagines them to become naked. Of course this is known to be a favorite male pastime anyway but Ben uses his images to transform the nude poses to Art which sought of legitimizes his obsession.
Eventually Ben transcends viewing women as just objects by his artistic and ethereal portrayals. The effects in the film and slight intrigue create a pleasurable little film and is worth catching on DVD. Males should be warned there is some scenes involving nubile naked young women and should contain themselves if ladies are present. ;O).
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'...something to do with their ability to see beauty in everything.'
Sean Ellis has made 'Cashback' right from the heart. This is quite evident in the sincerity and passion behind the writing and storytelling. 'Cashback' is very much about the common young citizen but at the same time Ellis brings magic to it. We see Ben as an ordinary art student moonlighting at a supermarket and then we see how he views the world, how he perceives beauty, in the supermarket, in the female body and pretty much anything else, while his male co-workers are fooling around playing pranks, chattering about shagging and...killing time. Ellis also brings a lot of philosophy and irony into the movie. I very much agree that one shouldn't look at the clock/watch when they're bored.
There's plenty of nudity in 'Cashback' but nothing vulgar and much of it is necessary to demonstrate Ben's perspective of beauty (while providing eye candy for the viewer). If the nudity helps pull a crowd then all the better because the viewer's definitely in for a great film experience.
Sean Biggerstaff is splendid as Ben Willis. He definitely fits the ordinary young lad look and plays Ben very naturally, with restraint. Emilia Fox is excellent as the luminous Sharon. It's a pity one doesn't get to see this actress in more movies. The rest of the cast are brilliant.
On the technical side, the music is very fitting and the special effects are terrific. Cinematography is superb and the editing is as sharp as it should be.
I didn't know what to expect from 'Cashback'. I had read that it was a comedy and the stills and poster gave me the impression that it was probably a sex comedy but, as mentioned earlier, this movie turned out to be a wonderful surprise.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460740/reviews
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