Belleza invaluable

A guy and his girl break up. Painfully. As a result of this the guy becomes an insomniac and suddenly finds himself with 8 more hours in the day. 8 more hours in which he feels the pain of love gone sour. 8 more hours to be bored and restless. He decides to make the best of it and starts working the night shift in a supermarket where he is met with a new kind of boredom and several people that deal with that boredom in different ways. Himself adding yet another way of dealing with that boredom. He imagines he can stop time. What follows is best seen instead of read about.

This film is filled to the rim with the most beautiful stills, completed with several speeds of motion and feels right. Right in an artistically way. It is like watching a painting being painted,, like watching a poem being written, like listening to a song being composed. And at the end it all adds up and the completed picture is seen in all its beauty. All in all a really nicely designed film that belongs in the small theaters and in the art-houses.

Next to that it is fun to watch. The adventures of the guy are interesting to follow, even though they aren't all that different from what most people go through at one or other stage of life. Music choice was very fitting and acting was good enough not to be falling out of place with the rest. So, all in all, a very pleasurable watch and something I can recommend to anyone.

9 out of 10 sketches sketched

Our hero is a dorky art student, newly and painfully broken up with his girlfriend, attempting to find something to fill his sleepless nights. He goes to work at a grocery store, where his imagination and eccentric coworkers help him through the breakup and put a little romance back into his life.

There is some artistic nudity, where our protagonist sketches various men and women in the buff; none of it seems gratuitous, it's just one more part of the film. I'm a big fan of artistic nudity, although I have to admit I've never been able to get chicks to strip down in the supermarket as they do in this film. It's a talent, certainly, that every man could use.

Overall, it's a slightly offbeat romantic comedy of the sort we could use more of. Not formulaic, not predictable, but enjoyable and entertaining. I watched it with my girlfriend, who refused to pose artistically afterwards, but you can't have everything. I've noticed that romantic movies don't necessarily translate into romantic activities for the people watching them; there should be a category of movies that does so, although I don't know what it would be.

All in all, it's a good date movie, good couch movie, just a good movie to watch when you're in the mood for something lighthearted and quirky.

I attended the world premiere of "Cashback" at the Toronto International Film Festival. I walked out in a daze. I had a feeling I'd seen something special, that moment when you have to pause to take a breath and reflect on what you've experienced. I still had about 20 films to go at the time, and "Cashback" raised the bar and became the benchmark against which all the others would have to be compared. As it turned out, nothing came close. Of the 30 plus films I saw that week, "Cashback" tops the list.

Literally built around the short film of the same name which screened at festivals in 2004, triple threat writer/director/producer Sean Ellis did something ingenious. Rather than take his 20 minute piece and expand it to fill 90 minutes, he created a new Act One and Act Three to bookend a reworking of the original short in the center. And he pulled it off with a tour de force of light and sound. The result is an eerie, compelling twist on the classic Outer Limits episode where time stops while the protagonist weaves in and out of the frozen characters in another dimension. It may sound like sci-fi, but this is a sweet romantic comedy whose storyline is among the most original I've ever seen on screen. The concept is brilliant and the result magnificent.

The look is lush, cinematography by Angus Hudson breathtaking, and "Cashback" features an appropriately sweet score. They combine to give this low budget project a big movie feel, destined for the wide audience it deserves.

Most of all, I believe "Cashback" is the vehicle which will introduce newcomer Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood of "Harry Potter") to the world. His star tun in this film as protagonist Ben Willis left me speechless. The camera loves him, and he is on screen virtually from opening to closing credits. This film is his to make or break. It rests on his shoulders, and he owns the material.

As they say, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and I walked out with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face. And no other film I saw at the Toronto Film Festival did that to me. "Cashback" is a sweet little masterpiece.

Having seen the film a few times, I can really say: 'I don't think there is a person out there who wouldn't enjoy watching this great piece. It's a formula that works beautifully. It is cool - without being pretentious. It is beautiful and sexy - without being cheesy. Very few films touch a chord in you. This film certainly does that. I think, those individuals who express a lot of negativity towards the film - have issues. Deal with them first - then watch the film. Being a regular cinema visitor and very familiar with the standard of films we get fed, I can happily and confidently confirm that this film is a gem that really shines!

This is a small and simple film that has nothing simple and therefore results in nothing small. In fact, films like these show how some supposed delicacies produced by big studios can be put to shame by simple dishes by lesser-known authors who present us with delicious proposals made only with fine quality ingredients.

Everything in this movie results in. A script that is developed from a banal starting point, but which is treated in an original and emotionally elaborate way; an impeccable performance by the entire cast, which builds a gallery of characters that both provoke the most spontaneous laughter and moments of the deepest honest reflection; a cinematography sometimes just elegant, sometimes totally breathtaking; an extremely versatile and relevant soundtrack.

This is a film that comes out of a minor league, but that will not be considered as beeing at that level by anyone watches it.