Friday, December 12, 2008

Quintessential: Cashback

Directed by Sean Ellis
17 minutes
Original posting by Liz Feuerbach on September 4th.
For summary and video check out her posting.

I was not going to originally post about this short film, but I recently saw the feature and I changed my mind.

When I saw the feature I did not realize that it was a short first, but now after seeing the short, I think the short is much better. All of my favorite parts of the movie were originally from the short. I also think the short captures the spirit of the story better than the feature did. The feature seemed to drag and add plot lines that weren’t really central to the story. See, in the feature Ben takes the night shift at the supermarket because his girlfriend just broke up with him and now he can’t sleep, so he figures might as well get some money for his extra 8 hours. One thing leads to another and he likes Sharon now. They get together. But of course, a misunderstanding occurs, she runs off, and doesn’t accept his apologies. In the end he gets a gallery to show his artwork and he invites Sharon as a one last “I’m sorry” gesture. She shows up and sees all of the drawings are of her. Now this would be creepy in most situations, but here it is somehow endearing, and they get back together…again.

The extra romance of the feature length film I think distracts from the main focus of the film: the stopping of time to deal with boredom and exchanging your time to get money. I mean both films are titled Cashback, and in the short the title fits the story. But in the feature, by the end of the film you forget what the title means.

Like Liz, I thought how Ben would undress the women in the store and draw them was really perverse, but the way he explains himself makes you forgive him… sort of. Also the way he redresses the women with such care, and makes sure their outfits are straight makes it more forgivable. And really, this is only in his head, he can’t really stop time.

I have a friend who works in the deli department of a supermarket at home and once a day he will throw a chunk of meat in the air and scream out “My arm! My arm!” or something to that effect, just to pass the time. Once it backfired though. Apparently this old woman witnessed him do it once before and she verbally flogged him for joking about something as serious as loosing an arm. I still think the joke is pretty funny.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ben freaked me out throughout the entire movie and short film. I did not think that him undressing the women and drawing them was forgivable at all. It is really wrong to violate women that way.

The notion of stopping time to make it go faster didn't make much sense either, unless it was like in Click where then time fast forward-ed afterwards.

Anonymous said...

I also saw both the short and the feature and I agree, the short is much better. It was almost as if the director was searching for things to add in to make the film feature length. he should have just kept it to a short.

Did anyone else notice that the actor who played Ben was also Oliver Wood in the Harry Potter movies?

Anonymous said...

Your friend who works at the deli seems pretty awesome. I would totally laugh if he did that in front of me. well i would laugh after being completely scared, of course.

Anonymous said...

It is really hard for me to suspend my disbelief for the film regarding the stopping of time. for example, when Ben moves the boss so he gets hit by the flying milk carton, doesn't the boss realize he was standing just in front of Sharon a second ago, and now he is in the store room? It doesn't seem right. there needs to be an explanation.

David said...

It was interesting but, I recommend ROOM 9 as a short film because it stars Celeste Thorson and it's a good film noir style short
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2294576/

cashback said...

i enjoyed the movie, strange but good.

Chad said...

I agree, the short was far better than the feature. There's just something special about keeping it concise. If you don't have room to add something meaningless, what remains is usually close to perfect.

Or to be cliché, less is more.

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