Review of Cashback (2007) by Paul V — 17 Aug 2010

I watched this film on a NetFlix recommendation based on my interest in Charlie Bartlett, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Watchmen. I see the parallels to Bartlett and Eternal Sunshine, respectively the adolescent-type comedy masking an actual message and genuine emotional pull, and the quirky sci-fi element bolstering powerful romanticism, but I'm at a loss as to why it thought someone who likes Watchmen would like Cashback. I did, however, love Cashback.

The story is a relatively simple one; a young art student, Ben, breaks up with Susie, his girlfriend of two years, catalyzing a long bout of insomnia, which he seeks to rid himself of by taking the night shift at a grocery market. While there, he discovers that he has the ability to freeze time, and in these pauses, he walks about the store, undressing female patrons and sketching them. He soon develops a crush on a girl he works with, Sharon, and the remainder of the film revolves around his attempt to woo her, as well as to realize his dream of having his work feature in a gallery.

The premise of the film may sound rather juvenile and perverted; a young guy stops time, and thusly strips the frozen women in the vicinity naked. However, it is decidedly neither. Rather, all of the nudity in this film (and there is a lot of it) is done with the utmost artistry, in full appreciation and awe of the beauty of the female form. Ben explains in his narration how he's been fascinated by it since the time he was a child, and saw the Swedish foriegn exchange student staying at his house walk from the bathroom to her room in the nude.

In sharp contrast to the sensitivity and romance of the protagonist and his potential, the remainder of the film's secondary characters are entirely crude. From his horny best friend to the two immature guys he works with to his total imbecile of a manager, everyone in Ben's life serves as two things: comic relief, and an illustration of the rarity of the true romantic artist (Ben). They aren't very likeable, but they are hilarious.

It's remarkable that this film can take such vastly different stances on women, being Ben's romantic love of their natural beauty and everyone else's macho perversion, and portray vividly so much of both, and make both work as wonderfully as they do, respectively as a core theme of the film and as the aforementioned comic relief bits. For that, and for its fantastic cinematography and shot composition, as well as slick editing, simple but flawlessly effective special effects, true-to-life acting and its very quirky, original premise, I would have to say that Cashback is a film well-worth seeing, especially for fans of Eternal Sunshine. Like Ink and Franklyn, this is a film I feel incredibly lucky for NetFlix to have recommended me.