Cashback 2007

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: As observers we can project our own fantasies onto Ben's, and [director] Ellis enhances this dreamy effect with low-budget ingenuity, like cleverly executing location changes in the same unbroken shot. Read more

Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times: Beware films with protagonists depicted as vastly more sensitive than their fellow characters. The result may be a crock like Cashback. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [Director] Ellis has rounded up all the actors for this feature adaptation but doesn't add much to the 18-minute original besides a tedious boy-meets-girl. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Ellis seems to believe that artists have an enlightened sense of beauty and greater access to it than common folk. And he may be right: He's clearly mastered the skill of convincing art-school chicks to take their clothes off. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: A very romantic portrait of a young artist as he ponders love, beauty and living in the moment. Read more

Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly: Cashback aspires to be equal parts Volkswagen ad and Nicholson Baker's The Fermata, yet compares unfavorably to both. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: How ironic that Richard Lester had to go all the way to England to make that chef-d'oeuvre of sex comedies, The Knack... and How to Get It, while Ellis stays home and churns out the British answer to American Pie. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: It's no small trick to blend fantasy, slapstick and genuine emotion, but [director] Ellis pulls it off with whimsy to spare. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Imagine 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. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A sleek little meditation on beauty, desire, love and time. Now and then, it's fairly sophisticated stuff. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Cashback is light, smart, and enjoyable, and it makes me eager to see what Ellis has planned for his next outing. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is lightweight, as it should be. It doesn't get all supercharged. Ben and Sharon, despite setbacks, are delighted to be admired by such wonderful partners, and we are happy for them. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Slickly charming, genteelly erotic and directed with supreme polish. Read more

Jim Ridley, Village Voice: Wong Kar-wai on aisle 4 and Michel Gondry on aisle 6, with Kevin Smith as mop jockey at all points in between -- such is the lost-in-the-supermarket milieu of writer-director Sean Ellis's whimsical comedy. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Cashback 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. Read more