Product Description

Art student ben develops insomnia after going through a painful break-up. To kill time he joins the late shift at the local supermarket. They all have their own time-killing devices & bens allows him to see the beauty of the everyday world - especially sharon the quiet checkout girl. Studio: Magnolia Pict Hm Ent Release Date: 12/31/2007 Run time: 98 minutes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3331 in DVD
• Brand: MAGNOLIA HOME ENTERTAINMENT
• Released on: 2007-07-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
A slight but likable British comedy-fantasy with a touch of naughtiness, Cashback is an expanded version of director Sean Ellis' Oscar-nominated short film of the same name about a bored supermarket clerk who discovers that he has the ability to stop time. Sean Biggerstaff (from the Harry Potter franchise) is Ben, a lovelorn young man whose chronic insomnia (due to a bad breakup) forces him to bury himself in pointless and repetitive work at a local grocery store. Once there, boredom causes him to believe that he can stop time, and he enjoys long and languid fantasies about undressing and sketching the female shoppers. But reality intrudes in the form of recollections of his troubled past, as well as the lovely presence of fellow clerk Sharon (Emilia Fox), who offers the promise of love in the real world. A gentle and artfully directed independent film, Cashback doesn't run very deep in terms of emotion, but the special effects are clever, the cast quirky and amusing, and its premise is an appealing mix of softcore reverie and boyish longing. - Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews

"Clerks" meets "American Beauty."
I've often said that American Beauty is the first foreign film to be made in the US, but now I digress...

Cashback is a pleasant little movie that starts sad and slow. It gets interesting when the main character takes a night shift job in a grocery store to cure his insomnia brought on by a break-up. It is in the store that we are served some random comedy, introspection and some interesting nudity.

Visually there's much to enjoy, and in spite of several directorial faux pas' it really does work.

Slow and Boring
Tiny bits of humor, unbelievably boring. The star of the show rambles on and on. The funniest scene is in the first two minutes when his ex rips into him. There are a few bits of immature humor but it just dragged on. Did I say it dragged on and on?

A great avante-garde romantic comedy-fantasy
Ok, I admit it ... just like many other people, it was the cover picture that caught my eye (as it was meant to). HOWEVER, it was the cogent and intelligent comments here (on Amazon) that succeeded in clueing me in to a sensitively written high-brow gem of a movie, which I promptly purchased, and just finished enjoying.

Yes, Ellis' movie has the obligatory dysfunctional 'characters', and sophomoric humor, required to keep what Shakespeare called his audience's "peanut gallery" contingent entertained ... thus freeing him to tell the deeper tale to the rest of the audience in peace.

In this instance, the story revolves around an intelligent, and very introspective, young art student who, shell-shocked from breaking up with his {superficially} beautiful girlfriend, goes through an emotional recovery phase (and a severe bout of profound insomnia) in which his understandings of "beauty" (both superficial and inner), and his perception time itself, shatter and rearrange themselves in surreal fashion into a new, deeper, and more mature awareness.

{By the way, the movie title is something of a double pun - the main character, as a result of his insomnia, uses his sleepless hours to work the graveyard shift at a local supermarket, theyeby getting 'cashback' on his surplus time (which seems to drag interminably) ... also, his new love interest, the cashier in same store, asks customers if they want 'cashback' on the card they use for their purchase.}

Anyway, it's a great avante garde movie. Ellis deftly uses the combination of feminine beauty, and surreal time perception, as a sort of visual zen-koan, in order to help the viewer better empathize with the main character's attempts to reassess both concepts with his artistic mental microscope (like a microbiologist trying to study what's ailing him). If you've ever been through a near death experience, a major accident, or a particularly deep & memorable emotional experience (good or bad), you'll have a leg up on grasping the slow-motion 'train wreck' altered-state-of-awareness effect (and it's aftermanth) that often accompanies such experiences, and how they often replay themselves over and over again in your mind ... sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes timeless.

It's well done, and very enjoyable. Stars: 4 1/2.