Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild.
Cashback is a visually inventive expansion of the acclaimed short film, elevated most by its striking cinematography — the time-freeze sequences and Ben's artistic fantasy tableaux are rendered with genuine beauty and craft that stand well above average. The plot is a modest, melancholic coming-of-age romance that works well enough but doesn't transcend its indie-quirk formula. Acting is competent and charming without being remarkable. Novelty earns a mid score: the magic-realist time-stopping conceit gives it a distinctive visual identity, but the brooding art-school narrator and post-breakup moping are familiar territory. The ending is warm and satisfying but fairly conventional for the genre.