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Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Shaun Evans, Michelle Ryan, Stuart Goodwin ... see more see more... , Michael Dixon , Michael Lambourne , Marc Pickering , Nick Hancock

A young insomniac attempts to cope with his sleepless nights by taking a job at a local supermarket, only to discover that he possesses a curious coping mechanism in the debut feature from Academy-Awa... read more read more...rd nominated filmmaker Sean Ellis. Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, and in his grief he has lost his ability to sleep through the night. When Ben takes a job at the supermarket and makes the acquaintance of an odd collection of individuals, including silly slackers Barry (Michael Dixon) and Matt (Michael Lambourne) and aspiring kung fu master Brian (Marc Pickering), he begins to find his imagination taking flight in a most unusual manner. It seems that Ben has the ability to literally stop time, a talent that allows him to take pause, traverse the supermarket aisles, and ponder both his own life and the existence of the customers who stand frozen and completely unaware of his presence. As much a dreamer as Ben may be, however, his willingness to maintain his connection to the tangible, if slightly antiseptic, world he currently inhabits soon finds the wistful dreamer forming a close connection with disarmingly straightforward checkout girl Emily (Emilia Fox), whose solid ties to reality serve to offer a healthy contrast to the fantasy-prone insomniac's surreal form of escapism. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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77% liked it

48,302 ratings

Critics

45% liked it

51 critics

R, 1 hr. 42 min.

Directed by: Sean Ellis

Release Date: April 20, 2007

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DVD Release Date: July 24, 2007

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Stats: 4,785 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (4,785)

  • MrMarakai
    May 23, 2012
    MrMarakai
    Director Sean Ellis made an 18 minute short film in 2004 that won a plethora of International awards and received an Oscar nomination. Because of this, he decided to expand it to feature length and delivers a delightful little independent film.
    Young artist Ben Willis (Sean Bi... read moreggerstaff) breaks up with girlfriend Suzy (Michelle Ryan) which leads to him developing insomnia. As sleep is hard to come by, he takes on a night-shift at the local supermarket where he develops ways to alter time and indulge in his artistic imagination.
    The best way to describe this film lies in a direct quote from the protagonist himself; "Within this frozen world I'm able to walk freely and unnoticed. Nobody would even know that time has stopped. And when it started back up again, the invisible join would be seamless except for a slight shudder. Not unlike the feeling of somebody walking over your grave". And so begins, the journey of insomniac Ben Willis who stops time and undresses women to paint and sketch their female form. This is an imaginative and thoroughly rewarding little film from a promising new director. The New York Post compared Sean Ellis to "Clerks" director Kevin Smith, if he had "... a background in poetry and painting instead of Comic-books and bestiality jokes". It's a good comparison as this film is as fresh and engaging as Smith's earlier work. However, it's also a prime example of how films can be almost completely buried if it doesn't receive the right marketing campaign. Such a shame, that this hasn't gained a wider audience. It's a cleverly constructed and stylish debut with sharp dialogue and genuinely touching and hilarious moments. Ellis is a director that has now caught my attention and he draws excellent performances from a relatively unknown cast. The only apparent problem is over-length. To go from an 18min short to a 100min feature is a bit of a stretch and as a result, the film meanders toward it's conclusion. However, this is a small gripe in what is otherwise an inventive and sophisticated little drama.
    Skilfully handled by everyone involved and the kind of film that warrants more attention. A vastly underrated little gem.
  • FrizzDrop
    May 9, 2012
    FrizzDrop
    This film has recently enjoyed a renewal of interest, and is swiftly becoming a cult classic with a loyal following. Based off a short Ellis made, and won an Oscar for, he has expanded it and made an independent film that has changed the look of the genre. Good independent films,... read more especially comedies, happen once in a long while, and they usually get the stuffing kicked out of them by critics. It's the audience that makes these films rise in prominence, and that's thanks to the ones who scour the festivals and write the reviews that give these films sufficient attention. Why am I putting so much emphasis on this fact? Because Cashback varies throughout, and though cute, stays on that fine line between obnoxious and highly original. It has the fairy tale sweetness of magic realism by enabling the main character to possess the ability to freeze time while also falling in love with his co-worker. It is about love, about understanding a relationship, about analyzing time and how your actions affect it. The characters are interesting, the plot stays plausible if not magical, and the writing is executed with an ear for the cute and cuddly, while retaining a human dignity for the main character, who has just ended a relationship that used to mean the world to him. Besides the fact that there is an air of disillusionment around Ben (Biggerstaff), I didn't really believe the bond between him and the cashier (Fox) who seamlessly fall in love in a millisecond. I could see some attraction based on mutual isolation from society and both of them being hopeless when it comes to love, but true love? I don't see that dynamic working out. Also, a lot of loose threads wound together. The best friend is added only as a token character, the boss is arrogant yet lacking in the film, and there are characters that appear just long enough to confuse and delay the ending. Beside those inconsistencies, I really enjoyed the light comedy and the sadness that effortlessly comes off Ben, who owns this film by being adorably tragic.
  • blkbomb
    March 18, 2012
    blkbomb
    Ben Willis: I wanted to freeze time. I wanted to savor that moment, to live in that moment for a week. But I couldn't stop it, only slow it. And before I knew it, she was gone. After the door closed I felt like the last person on Earth. 

    "Sometimes love is hiding between the sec... read moreonds of your life"

    Cashback is a movie that starts off with a lot of promise. It feels like it's going to be one of those great indie gems. It manages to be original and highly inventive. It feels fresh for an hour, and then... dullness. I fell completely out of love with the movie in the last 45 minutes or so. It never got to the point where I was hating what I was watching, but it did get to the point where I just didn't care anymore.

    Ben breaks up with his girlfriend and goes into a bout of depression. In the weeks that follow, he can no longer sleep. He decides to take a night job at a grocery store to pass the eight hours when he can't sleep. He finds a way to pass his shifts by freezing time. Then he ends up falling for a fellow employee. 

    The film does manage to be pretty original even when it reaches points of predictability. On a whole it isn't a bad experience. It's funny, at times. It's smart a lot of the time, and manages to hold ones attention. The initial set up was just a lot better than the sum of all the parts, and by the end I was underwhelmed by the final product. 

    The acting is fairly good, and all the breasts are exquisite. But as a feature length film, it leaves a lot to be desired is all. Worth a look of you are into indies, but don't expect a great one.
  • SirPant
    January 21, 2012
    SirPant
    The short that the full length feature was based on is far more successful. It basically retains all the good bits without all the guff. It's more faithful to the original idea, it's cleaner and more pure - it actually makes the original look a bit shoddy on retrospect, full of f... read moreiller and somewhat diluted.
  • 76Majikat
    January 21, 2012
    76Majikat
    Given the subject matter, the content of this short was very creative, a fantasist's eye who's outlook differs to others by his artistic talent. It seems this may have been called upon by partial experience perhaps.
  • aSpaceCowboy
    April 9, 2011
    aSpaceCowboy
    I really wanted to like this movie. It seemed like a stunning, visual adventure. Having seen the short film of the same name that inspired this film, I was really looking forward to Cashback, the movie!

    In the short film, Ben (Beggerstaff) works an 8-hour weekday job and is so... read more taken by the the artistic value in a grocery store that he can freeze time to really appreciate the beauty of it all. This was a glorious concept and filmed so wonderfully that I wanted more. But as they say "be careful what you wish for."

    This feature length film manages to be different which I should have expected, but I didn't want anything different. The entire short film actually makes up an entire scene in the movie. I mean, it's a shot for shot reshoot, I'm thinking it was just the orignal short spliced into this film. With this in the film we get a brand new 10 minutes before the short, and 70 or so minutes after it.

    What started off as a creative narative journey through the eyes of a breoken hearted art school student turns into a slow going nausea car ride with little development.

    Wha sucked the most was that the freezing of time gets more of an explanation in here. In the short. It seem slike something that's all in this guy's head, but in the fetaure length it's more like a super power. And apparently others can be caught in the freeze time zone, but that is quickly addressed as it is dropped. We learn that Ben can bring others into his frozen reality, but we never get the explanation of who the other person in his first encouter of a vistor in his frozen reality was.



    ...........more will come.............
  • hunterjt13
    November 24, 2010
    hunterjt13
    An artist breaks up with his girlfriend, and the resulting insomnia compels him to take a night job at an grocery store, where he discovers his power to freeze time.
    Cashback is a brilliant, beautiful film that is able to raise teenage-wasteland aimlessness, adolescent sex... read moreual curiosity, and abject loneliness into moments of pure poetry. Normally I side Robert McKee on the use of voice-over, except when it is able to collaborate with the striking visuals, as Cashback's narration does.
    But Cashback isn't just an exploration and celebration of female beauty and sexuality. There are some wonderfully hilarious, laugh-out-loud (and I never laugh out loud) scenes. Jenkins, Ben's douche-bag boss, is the victim of some slapstick done well, and Ben's roommate is an uproariously witty horn dog.
    Unfortunately, the film does open a door that it never walks through when Ben discovers that he is not the only who can freeze time, but this is a minor flaw.
    Overall, Cashback is the good version of Risky Business, a film of visual and spoken poetry.
  • Deano78
    August 16, 2010
    Deano78
    A charming little British comedy, originally a short film that won a lot of awards. So they decided to just expand it a lil to a full length film. Starring Michelle Ryan in a small role, the cast is largely unknown. It also caused a stir when released as it featured a topless mod... read moreel (Keeley Hazell) although very briefly. It does have a few nude scenes, but they are actually quite artfully done. It's a good story, with some nice ideas right from the opening break up scene. It uses a lot of different techniques film wise, the idea of freezing time is done well. It is quite funny, add a great soundtrack and I have to say I prefer this over 500 days of summer which was a bit similar in theme. Check it out.
  • romy861
    June 18, 2010
    romy861
    Interesting little film. Had some funny parts to it and I liked the surrealness of it, though I can say as an insomniac, highly unrealistic to think someone would take on a second job at night and function in that, let alone all day on no sleep for weeks on end. But I digress..... read more. this is a character who can "stop" time, so I don't think realism was high on the list when they wrote this!
    It lost half a point for the boring and pointless sports match halfway through. I could not see where that even fit into the story, let alone want to watch it.
    Had some really good and quirky characters and a nice love story in the end.
  • ythelastman89
    January 7, 2010
    ythelastman89
    I really liked this for being such a light-hearted movie that doesn't attempt to be all that original, yet somehow it is. The cast was great and there were a lot of touching moments. I like that this is basically one person's view on the world and you really get to see inside his... read more mind.

View All Cashback Reviews

Critic Reviews

Richard Roeper
July 31, 2007
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

I think this filmmaker has a future.

Scott Brown
July 25, 2007
Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly

Cashback aspires to be equal parts Volkswagen ad and Nicholson Baker's The Fermata, yet compares unfavorably to both. Full Review

James Berardinelli
July 21, 2007
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Cashback is light, smart, and enjoyable, and it makes me eager to see what Ellis has planned for his next outing. Full Review

Kyle Smith
July 20, 2007
Kyle Smith, New York Post

Imagine Kevin Smith with a background in poetry and painting instead of comic books and bestiality jokes, and you'll have an idea of what to expect from an exciting new filmmaker named Sean Ellis, who... Full Review

Jack Mathews
July 20, 2007
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

It's no small trick to blend fantasy, slapstick and genuine emotion, but [director] Ellis pulls it off with whimsy to spare. Full Review

Matt Zoller Seitz
July 20, 2007
Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times

Beware films with protagonists depicted as vastly more sensitive than their fellow characters. The result may be a crock like Cashback. Full Review

J. R. Jones
July 20, 2007
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

[Director] Ellis has rounded up all the actors for this feature adaptation but doesn't add much to the 18-minute original besides a tedious boy-meets-girl. Full Review

Roger Ebert
July 20, 2007
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The movie is lightweight, as it should be. It doesn't get all supercharged. Ben and Sharon, despite setbacks, are delighted to be admired by such wonderful partners, and we are happy for them. Full Review

Sheri Linden
July 20, 2007
Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

A flair for language both cinematic and verbal elevates an ordinary coming-of-age comedy of little substance.

Kevin Crust
July 19, 2007
Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times

A very romantic portrait of a young artist as he ponders love, beauty and living in the moment. Full Review

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    • Ben: Once upon a time I wanted to know what love was.Love is there if you want it to be. You just have to see that it's wrapped in beauty and hidden away between the seconds of your life. If you don't stop for minute, you might miss it.
    • Ben: The female form has always been a great source of inspiration.
    • Ben: Damn that's some bomb ass pussy right their boy! Gimme some!
    • Sean: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.
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  • What Oscar-nominated short film was turned into a feature length romantic comedy of the same name?  Answer »
  • Susie was Ben Willis second real girlfriend in Cashback ?  Answer »
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