Cashback

Introduction

In 2004, fashion photographer Sean Ellis won the Tribeca film festival award for best short with Cashback, which was later nominated for an Oscar for best short film. Before the Oscar nomination he decided to expand the 18 minute short into a feature film, using the same cast and incorporating almost all the material from the short into a longer narrative.

When art student Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) gets dumped by his girlfriend Suzy (Michelle Ryan), he suffers from a mental breakdown that causes terrible insomnia. Deciding he may as well get paid for the 8 hours he's not wasting on sleep, he gets a job working the nightshift at the local 24hr Sainsbury's.

While most of his co-workers treat time as the enemy, wishing the clock would speed up, Ben finds that if he wants time to slow down, he can actually make it stop. One of the things that Ben does is use this for art practice, undressing attractive female shoppers and sketching them, before redressing them and cracking his knuckles to restart time. He develops a crush on checkout girl Sharon (Emilia Fox) and spends hours drawing her, but fully dressed. The rest of the shift is spent messing around with Barry, Matt and Brian - co-workers who act as comic relief. He also has to deal with his idiot of a boss, Jenkins, who organises a 5-a-side football game against another branch (which they lose 26-0) and even his own birthday party with surprise stripper.

Video

A very good anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer with excellent 'frozen time' effects - most of which were done with the actors standing very still and filmed at a high speed rather than using CGI.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is very clear, with sparing use of the surrounds, but it does have the edge over the 2.0 Stereo option.

Very good English HoH subtitles are available.

Extra Features

The making of, running for 19 minutes, isn't so much a structured 'how we made the film' piece but a loose collection of behind the scenes footage and interviews. Worth a look.

Under the Deleted Scenes heading are two extended scenes and several different takes of one scene.

The commentary with Sean Ellis and Sean Biggerstaff began like someting that was going to be an ordeal with the two laughing and making silly noises. However, once they settle down and relax, they begin talking about the film, how it was expanded from the short and how it was made. They also give some interesting insights including the response to stereotyping Swedes (Ellis had a Swedish babysitter who behaved like the student in the film does), why all the women that Ben draws are slim and good looking (larger women drew laughs in test screenings) and even the reason for CGI pubic hair.

There is, of course, the semi-obligatory trailer.

Conclusion

The 18 minute short Cashback takes place entirely in Sainsbury's and merely shows Ben's ability to stop time and what he does when the clock stops ticking. This feature film adds a reason for his insomnia, develops a touching relationship between Ben and Sharon, introduces his best friend Shaun and contains much more of his co-workers and manager.

Sean Ellis treads a delicate line with Ben's drawing of nude women, done so completely without their knowledge or consent and it could easily be seen as the work of a pervert or peeping Tom. Sean Biggerstaff plays Ben with a nice mix of naïveté and sensitivity so it never seems sordid, merely the actions of a bored wannabe artist with a longstanding fascination of the female form.

Biggerstaff's accent (he is a man with a broad Scottish brogue) is excellent, sounding like a well spoken Londoner, he plays the straight man well and has good support from Emilia Fox, Michelle Ryan and the assorted Sainsbury's employees.

As this is expanded from a short, the narrative is a little baggy at times and there is an unexplored sub-plot involving someone else who can stop time but, whilst not perfect, I enjoyed this. It's worth a look but it is a mystery why the short film isn't included in the extra features so you can see the genesis of the project.