Review of Cashback (2007) by Chriss M — 21 Feb 2012

I rushed to Flixster after watching the film only to be stopped in my tracks by my cinema-fluent friends' reviews which were shockingly contentious. I just did not get it. How could they possibly be missing the beauty in this film?

The film's focus is a young guy doing the nightshift in a Sainsburys. An 8 hour shift. A mind-numbing, soul-destroying eight hour shift. To cope with this, he explains, there are certain techniques. Both he and his colleagues have mastered the art of complacency. They escape their reality, by turning to fantasy. Ben our main character, a man with artistic pretensions, allows his mind to be taken by the female form- or as we would see it, he fantasises about the hot girls that pass through the store.

For me, the film perfectly captures every crevasse the mind escapes to when stuck in the robotic mindset you're forced into in order to get a little cash, from these spartan necessity-factories. It really did capture what it's like to be doing the night shift.

The film is narrated over as in an internal monologue by the main character, Ben, with dialogue written by Sean Ellis. Sean Ellis proves here that he is a natural writer, weaving his words with an air of prevention, but one you believe the character would have. This is probably more of an autobiography than a fiction. Visually, the film was striking as well, just for the director's fearlessness in showing the supermarket as it is. Bland, horribly-lit, and colourless. Literally life-draining.

In the end, the film had a reminiscent air about it. It reminded me of Human Traffic, and the particular sequence in which our main cast shares their feelings on the 9-5, probably inspired this.

So with all that, how could it be that my friends do not share my opinion?! Well, I know why! What I had just viewed was released not in 2006, but in 2004, and was seventeen minutes long. Turns out this film existed as a short film before being remade into a feature. I urge, strongly urge, anyone who has or has not seen the feature, to watch the short. From your reviews, I won't let the feature length film poison my memories, so happily I will stick with the brilliant short. Watch it!