Cashback (2006)
"It takes approximately 500 pounds to crush a human skull. But the human emotion is a much more delicate thing." is the starting narration of Cashback, a British romantic comedy by Sean Ellis.
The Film based on his Academy nominated short by the same name, expands on the concept of The Beauty in stillness" into a quirky romantic comedy in the realm of post-college coming of age story. The beauty of the film lies in the same realm of the 18 min. short, that Ellis gained Academy fame for. Ellis, being a ex fashion photographer, brings a bevy of models for his 18 min short segment of the film, where the title character Ben Willis use his magical ability to freeze time in his late night job as a supermarket cleric and sketches the beauty of the female form. Riding the borderline between porn and art, Cashback's short seems to focus on the beauty of the female nude form rather than the lustful fascination of it. Ben, played by Harry Potter alum, Sean Biggerstaff, brings a perfect calmness and respect even when re-dressing the frozen women to return them to the regular time.
Now taken into the full-length film, Ellis adds more subplots of romantic comedy and the many flashbacks to support that the main character is in fact, an artist and not a pervert. And with that he turns the movie into a quirky romantic comedy of growing up and self-discovery. Which brings to the topic of these seamless scene transitions, which the movie seems like one connected flow of insomniac dream. These transitions keep the audience in a rhythm of stillness and motions without feeling the harsh cuts between visual sentences. Especially are the transitions between Ben's memories and reality. Though some transitions may seem a little forced like a college film student with a camera, but they seem to, mostly not distract the audience from its narrative. Which is explained to us by a surprisingly intelligent and understand main character. He seems to grasp his own flaws and dreams with as much finesse as his own sketch pencil. A little hard to accept that a depressed art student would have this much control over his own thoughts and not moping to the nearest Jimmy Eats World album. Though the quirky comedy bits of the movie will usually distract u from the deep thoughts delivered between every little segment of Ben's mind journey to his childhood.
What else distracts u would be the plethora of hawt women. As mentioned before Ellis brings a bevy of hawt models for his 18 min. short, and there's no shortage of hawt birds through out the rest of the film. The Film's intro starts with Ben's narrative over his break up with his Ex Girlfriend, whom is done in slow motion. Though not her most glorious and prettiest moment, but later flash backs clearly show that Ben has a thing for women with pretty eyes. Of course his nightly job at the supermarket lead as to the main female role of the film, Sharon, played by Emilia Fox, of british TV fame (most spank worthy in Couplings) and a few films that made some US nods, like the Pianist. But here she plays a slightly too perfect girl for Ben as the echo the common line through out the film of how a painter sees a women in all her beauties. But her simple beauty is in fact where she shines the most. Unfortunately she seemed to be a little 2 dimensional when it comes to the purpose of her role in the film. A flaw which is easily forgiven, specially for what can only be described as a fan service scene in the "Spread Eagle".
Though the movie glosses over realness of character for a nice well written feel good romantic comedy. Cashback drops wisdom through narrative and scenes where Ellis shows his passion for the beauty of stillness. Being a photography hobbyist myself, the Wang appreciates the settle of beauty of contrasting nudity in a supermarket and applaud any artist that work such concepts into a entertaining film.
Also the Wang especially like this interview where Sean Ellis defends his movie against the US rating system:
You can't. You make the film that you believe in. You make the film that you believe that you want it to be and if that hits problems then it hits problems. I mean I remember meeting Adrian Lyne once and he said "I just found out today that Lolita's not going to get distribution in America." And he says, "I think it's one of the most beautiful films that I've ever made." I've thought about that in subsequent years and I just thought in the grand scheme of things the fact that it didn't get distribution in America is not what's important. What is important is Adrian Lyne made what he thought was his most beautiful film. It's a sad day when people stop making films that they feel are beautiful just so that they can appease a marketplace.
(via)
The Original Cashback Short (2004)
Official Website for the Cashback (2006) movie. (NSFW)
