Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff, Oliver Wood in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), a student attending art school, works the nightshift at a twenty-four hour supermarket. Each employee finds a way to make the time pass. Ben’s approach is counterintuitive as he stops time, and then draws all of the women, at least in his imagination. Written & Directed by: Sean Ellis. Produced by: Lene Bausager. 20 min
A deftly constructed voyage inside the mind of an artist stuck in a meaningless job, Cashback is part satire of modern life, part worshipful tribute to the beauty of the female form. With a nearly hypnotic performance by Sean Biggerstaff, witty dialog, and a style born of conviction, both parts work far better than they have any right to.
Ben, who narrates in a self-induced trance, introduces us to the motley crew of the eight-hour nightshift. They all share the goal of making it to another day. Their tricks for enduring the boredom include scooter races, tricking women into buying sexually suggestive shampoo bottles, and dreaming. It’s presented in a lightly humorous manner, but the metaphor is clear. The supermarket is our day-to-day, drab, pointless lives, and each person’s trick for getting through the night represents a way of “getting by” in the real world without going mad. Generally, these methods get little out of life, but sometimes surviving is the best you can do.
Things change when Ben explains how he gets by. He removes the clothing of all the extraordinarily gorgeous women who come to the store, and sketches them. While there is humor in his co-workers’ actions, Ben’s devotion to the perfection of the naked female body is presented without subtext. It is pure and heartfelt (though if from Ben or from director Sean Ellis is unclear), and Ben’s adoration is catchy, pulling the viewer in to join the exaltation. Well, I was already pretty much there with Ben, so he didn’t need to do much for me to become part of the celebration. But I’m betting that a majority, of males at least, will be ready to sign on.
Ellis, primarily known for his edgy fashion photography in Britain, makes good use of his day-job skills in this, his second short (his first, Left Turn, was an atmospheric horror piece). He certainly knows how to photograph women. More than that, he is able to present them as beyond human, as divine, though also as cold and distant as gods would likely be. Ben is much like a photographer, or like a fan of photography. He sees something of real value, but he can’t interact with it.
For a film with very little activity, the twenty minutes fly by (unlike the night at the supermarket). Ben is such a sympathetic character, and his colleagues are so amusing, that there is always something to grab you. Entertaining while you watch, the theme (or perhaps the nude women, depending on your state of mind) will stick with you.
Ellis is planning to develop Cashback into a feature. I’m curious to see what he comes up with since he seems to cover the material in the short.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film.