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Cashback
Magnolia Pictures

Cashback reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 54 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for graphic nudity, sexual content and language

Starring Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Shaun Evans, Michelle Ryan, Stuart Goodwin, Michael Dixon, Michael Lambourne, and Marc Pickering

Based on the Oscar nominated short, Cashback is the tale of life on the graveyard shift at a supermarket. When a bad break-up leads to insomnia, art student Ben joins the nocturnal existence of a group of young grocers who indulge in the art of the imagination. As Ben learns to let his run free, he begins to see beauty in the ordinary as well as the possibility to love again.


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Drama  |  Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Sean Ellis  
DIRECTED BY: Sean Ellis  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: July 20, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: UK 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80
Variety Justin Chang
Slickly charming, genteelly erotic and directed with supreme polish, Cashback is a conventional romantic comedy that plays unconventional games with time and memory.
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75
Chicago Tribune Sid Smith
A modest but engaging film that mixes hormonal surges with art-house ingenuity.
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75
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It's no small trick to blend fantasy, slapstick and genuine emotion, but Ellis pulls it off with whimsy to spare.
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75
New York Post Kyle Smith
Imagine "Clerks" director 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, whose terrific debut is called Cashback.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film's structure is a little awkward, almost certainly as a result of its being expanded from 20 minutes to 97.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A sleek little meditation on beauty, desire, love and time. Now and then, it's fairly sophisticated stuff.
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70
Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
Writer-director Sean Ellis more-or-less successfully expands his Academy Award-nominated 18-minute short to full length, showcasing his talented young cast to good effect.
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63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie is lightweight, as it should be.
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60
Empire Emily Phillips
Much more than a tits and arse farce, this is an enjoyable, if lightweight effort.
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50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Best known as a still photographer, Ellis has a powerful motif in the idea of stopping time, yet he can't seem to move his characters along.
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50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
With Biggerstaff's breathless narration explaining every detail of the action, Cashback seems aimed at an audience that would rather be told a story than shown a movie.
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50
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Ellis' slight film has its charms, and the backstory he concocted to lead into the original 18-minute short is effective. But the film lags badly in the middle.
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50
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Springs from that childhood fantasy of being able to stop time and wander freely among the temporarily frozen. If only writer-director Sean Ellis had done more than use the conceit for a functional romance.
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50
Village Voice Jim Ridley
The movie is too cute by half, made close to unbearable whenever Ben's narration spews glib pseudo-profundities about memory and temporal stillness. But the flaky humor of wage slaves serial-killing time is good, rude fun.
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42
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
In short form, Cashback simply dealt with how a quirky group of supermarket employees whiled away the endless hours of a night shift, but the feature version spoils that economy by tacking on a romantic subplot and indulging its hero's precious ruminations on love and art.
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40
The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
Cashback suggests a “Malcolm in the Middle” episode directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The hero’s pained, hilarious childhood flashbacks deserve a much better movie.
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25
Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown
Director Sean Ellis has a lovely eye, but he's set the film in his blind spot. Not only can't he distinguish between art and porn, savoring and wallowing, universal truths and exhausted clichés -- he doesn't even seem interested in these distinctions.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H. gave it an8:
Innovative and imaginative, cleverly presented. I liked the stylish direction of Sean Ellis. It flowed well and was consistent. Beautiful story, filled with wonderful images. The creativity is just marvelous. Rich and good characters.

Christopher C gave it a6:
Unfortunately some inspired, delicate scenes and cute ideas are mixed right in with heavy-handed caricature that adds very little to the movie (soccer game, getting ready for the party, etc). The story's twists are also quite cliche – unlike the camerawork, which is nothing short of excellent.

RichE P. gave it an8:
I don't know why a majority of reviews were so harsh on a rookies first major film- sure it was a tad sophomoric but it reminded me of all kinds of people I grew up with so I was able to suspend my perception of the film. I say a majority of film reviewers are jaded the average joe will dig this picture!

Stanley L gave it a10:
One of the greatest movie I've seen in my life. Sean Ellis described human emotional in the way never been before. Naturally and naked, the main character's emotion take you back when you first experience love. Beautifully and intelligently filmed but not everyone would understand the artistic of this movie. I'm sure those of us who appreciate the beauty of life will definitely love this movie. See it for yourself, see it through the eyes of artists, of nature lovers.

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