Review: ‘Cashback’ on DVD

Zac:

Sean Ellis’ latest is a feature length version of an Oscar nominated short film of the same name and sadly, I imagine it worked far better in the short subject format. This whole film seems dragged out and stretched like butter over too much bread if I can quote Bilbo Baggins. There is some genuinely funny stuff and the overall idea is clever but there isn’t enough substance to fill a whole movie.
Ben is an art student that just dumped his girlfriend. He is so affected by this that he can’t sleep so he takes up a night shift working at supermarket which is full of interesting characters. Ben slowly and drolly narrates us through his life and his feelings about them and the deep understanding he has for women.
The film itself is just obsessed with the female body, not the mind really, but the body. Ben is able to freeze time in which he sketches all the women that are currently in the store nude by pulling their clothes off while frozen. It is nothing pornographic and Ben does it for the sake of art, but we are left to deal with his pretentious babbling and self pity that is almost unbearable at times. The freeze technique is over done as well. Sure it is cool and Ellis uses his low budget extremely well and does some cool camera tricks but it is all style over substance.
A completely unnecessary soccer scene is the perfect example of how this film is desperately searching for something to talk about. What does work though is the character of Sean, Ben’s best friend, and the flashbacks involving him. Most of the films best jokes and bits come from these looks into the two’s childhood together as they discover the female body.
Sean Biggerstaff has one emotion and that is dumbfounded with no range whatsoever. The other lackeys at the shop are played like they are simple minded heathens or completely pointless kung-fu masters. The store boss is a bit stereotypical, but the actor is at least just having fun in the part which makes him the most bearable of the co-workers.
The female of interest at the shop, Sharon (Emilia Fox), is an interesting and likable character though and we can easily see the attraction; the production cheats her though by hiding her attractiveness for most of the film so we buy into her being a knock out at the end.
The overall message and arc of the film is also just absurd and utterly beyond belief with as sappy and outrageous of an ending as one can imagine. The film seems like an excuse to show female nudity as much as the director intended us to honor and worship the female vessel. The whole film just feels like it’s screaming to say, I am an artist love me because I can see your every curve for what it is unlike anyone else; it’s almost offensive.
The flashback save this from being horrible and the camera work is cool and worth watching if you are into that sort of thing, but other then that, I can’t terribly recommend this film that is a pretentious wash once it is all said and done.

[rating: 2.5/5]

Scott:

One of the things I love about using Blockbuster is perusing through the isles and finding new movies. Well today I did just that. I picked up an indie flick called Cash Back. One of my homies at the store was telling me about how good the movie was, so I picked it up. I haven’t watched it yet, but the cover and synopsis on back are really intriguing to me.

From Wikipedia – “After a painful break up with his first girlfriend Suzy, Ben, an aspiring artist, develops insomnia. To take his mind off his problem he spends his nights working at a local supermarket, where he meets colorful characters. He falls in love with his colleague Sharon.

He lets his imagination run wild. In particular, he imagines that he can stop time for others, so that he can walk around in a world that is “frozen” like in pause mode of a film. He imagines female clients standing frozen in the supermarket, so that he can undress and draw them.

We see in flashback, with Ben’s voice-over explaining how he always has been impressed by the beauty of the female body, how he, as a young boy, could see a Swedish boarder naked while she was going to and coming from the shower; being Swedish she did not believe this situation required modesty. Also we see little Ben’s friend Sean Higgins showing Ben his parents’ adult magazines. Furthermore we see Sean paying a girl for showing him her genitals.

Sharon is Ben’s date when they go to the birthday party of their boss. Ben meets Suzy who wants to continue their relationship. Ben refuses, but Sharon gets a negative impression seeing Ben with Suzy for a moment, and gets angry.

As a practical joke colleagues Barry and Matt phone him, one of them pretending to be an art gallery owner who is interested in his drawings, and an appointment is made. It turns out well: the gallery owner, seeing Ben’s work, is interested, and an exhibition follows. Sharon also visits it and is impressed not only by Ben’s success, but also by the many paintings portraying her; ceasing from being angry.”