Cashback Reviews

this movie is pretentious crap. it's filled to the brim with clichés and pseudo-romantic voice overs which are only a pretext to show as much tits and pussies as any teenage boy can possibly imagine. it also doesn't help to throw in some seemingly innovative visual gimmicks to elevate it into the artsy realms of a gondry or jonze movie, because they're out of place, serve no purpose storywise and are mere empty style. Tits and pussies are great to look at but why pretend to be an artist for it to be acceptable and why tap a teenage mind for gag reflex triggering poetry and timefreezing fantasies to fill in as foreplay to tits and pussies? If I were a filmmaker I would probably find many good reasons to film pretty chicks naked, but I would try not to mentally cum all over my audience.

''I've always wanted to meet a painter.''

''Why?''

''I think it might have something to do with their ability to see beauty in everything.''


After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild.

Sean Biggerstaff: Ben Willis

Emilia Fox: Sharon Pintey

Cashback is an artistic film, like its main character Ben, that I have seen recently. It has qualities that blend together and result in unrivaled beauty and imagination.



The Director Sean Ellis usually delivers comedic romances, something which I'm relatively unphased by, but Cashback right from the off showed me something deeper, something bordering on a lesson in life, in love and the failed attempt only to be re-blossomed anew with a new chance. Sequences can be dreamy and surreal and as Ben suffers from insomnia from his heartbreak we see that in his new found job he can stop time to study one thing that he loves above all else. That thing in perspective being the female anatomy, not for it's lustful qualities to any typical man but for its proportionate shapely perfection form that is defined above all else.

Some useful flashback sequences of Ben as a boy help explain why he loves the female body so much, the scene when he sees the beautiful body of a Swedish Student naked on her way back to her room. Then as a curious mesmerized young boy would knocks on her door to return her left behind underwear, then he see's all, his view complete. The supple ripely formed breasts and perfect bottom effortlessly displayed that hell even makes me appreciate a goddess of a woman in all her splendor. To capture that on paper or in any sense, to possess that even, is nothing short of perfection.

Other things we get from Cashback is an array of characters doing some comical stuff in the work place, such as a salami BJ or a maddened race between Barry Brickman and Matt Stevens. Even the addition of a Kung fu Brian or the block headed manager was amusing. This really does make you feel like you're in Sainsburys.

Sean Biggerstaff who I recall in Philosophers Stone really shines as the lead being dreamy and suffering from insomnia.
Emilia Fox who works on the Checkouts, also impresses proving she does pick some very interesting choices in her films.
Michelle Ryan as the volatile Ex was very good also even though her part was a fine example of how obsessed we can be or how hard it is to let go after you have had a break up.

Ellis has crafted and created a film of such grandeur and creativeness that ends up being artistic, stylish and untouchable, the fact that he has made Cashback that is both perfect Art-House material and universal is a beacon to his talent and maturity funneled into vision.

Love can beunpredictable like a snowflake and in this sense Cashback throws an unusual tale of love lost and love found again, that really does indeed show love does let you keep the change.

Once a couple of years, a complete indie film manages to blow me away. This time, it's 'Cashback'. Absolulety beautiful movie, romantic, and hilariously insane as well.

its certainly a very original story...

Boy loves girl. Boy loses girl. Boy develops insomnia. Boy takes night shift at supermarket to kill time. Boy learns to 'freeze time' to enjoy beauty of everything and everyone around him. Will boy realize the perfect girl is right in front of him? And if he's too late, can he turn back time, or only freeze it to savor the moment one last time before she walks away?

sounds deep, romantic, and fantastic? that's because it is. now throw in pure brilliant comedy from start to finish with great narration, a sex-starved buddy, great childhood flashbacks, and a unique and colorful night-crew at the supermarket, and you've hit a grand slam of a film.

it feels like part 'Some Kind of Wonderful', part 'Eternal Sunshine', part 'Napoleon Dynamite', part 'American Pie', and part 'Trainspotting' (don't ask me about the last one - perhaps the colorful bunch of eccentric brits made me think of that film)

I look forward to Sean Ellis' next project. He's gonna be one director to watch out for.

also should probably mention there is a LOT of nudity in this film, including several full frontal female nudity, but its not a sex film. its a film about pure beauty - nudity in strictly artistic sense.