(The Brøken, Cashback, Shorts: Cashback, Left Turn)
Producers:
Sean Ellis and Lene Bausager
Screenplay:
Sean Ellis
Music :
Guy Farley
Cast :
Ben Willis: Sean Biggerstaff
Sharon Pintey: Emilia Fox
Sean Higgins: Shaun Evans
Suzy: Michelle Ryan
Jenkins: Stuart Goodwin
Barry Brickman: Michael Dixon
Matt Stephens: Michael Lambourne
Brian 'Kung-Fu': Marc Pickering
Young Ben Willis: Frank Hesketh
Art Class Girl: Katie Ball
Woman with trolley: Lene Bausager
Swedish Student: Hayley Marie Coppin
Frozen Beautiful Girl: Irene Bagach
Frozen Girl in Sainsbury's: Keeley Hazell
Nightclub Girl: Michelle Bentley
Young Sean: Gary Beeson
Young Natalie: Nelly Lyster-Smith
Adult Natalie: Janine May Tinsley
Tanya: Emilia Fenton
Rory Davies: Nick Hancock
Spread Eagle Stripper: Bianca Drakes
Cashback
begins with a spectacular scene as first year Uni student Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) breaks up with Suzy (Michelle Ryan)
when she voiciferously dumps him with her slow-motion words masked by the strains of Bellini's Casta Diva from the opera
'Norma', a wonderful piece that comes up again at other times during the film.
With only his friend Sean (Shaun Evans) to confide in, Ben finds he can't sleep as a result and now lives a 24hr
lifestyle, so ends up going to work at Sainsburys - trading his 8 hours awake overnight for 8 hours money, i.e. "cashback".
The popular supermarket is also where Sharon (Emilia Fox) works, a young girl who encapsulates his desires.
This film really looks at the minituae of life, especially in a way which, for Ben, is a bit on the pervy side but which
shows the way most blokes think, and it's full of brilliant writing that wraps everything together neatly. Interestingly, too,
although Ben feels he can pause time and examine every last detail of everything that goes on, in all situations, he can't seem
to do that when he came across a similar moment with Sharon...
He also over-analyses moments when growing up, including crushes on other girls in class at school - as well as the teachers,
and there's so many moments in the film which really speak to me, such as when he comes to look at the school at the weekend
because it looks so different when it's empty. Now, I haven't done that exactly, but I've seen once-busy buildings now looking
quiet at non-work times and I can see where he's coming from.
Cashback features brilliant use of slo-mo and ome fantastic set design, such as when Ben finishes an important
phone call and ends up back in bed in his dorm, to give one example. I also love the text on the quality control advice label
on a blurry photo, too (you'll need to pause the film to see this), as well as the fact that an invitation has the date of
"31st November" on it. Might sound like nothing, but it's just a nice touch in showing attention to the finer details of the
film.
Almost finally, at first I thought, according to the packshot on Amazon, I don't know why this was an 18, as a 15 would
seem more appropriate. Then I checked the BBFC website and... it is a 15-cert.
Overall, Casbnack is such a great film that's well worth checking out and I'm also looking forward to the director's
latest movie, The Brøken.
The anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen print is crisp and clear and well-lit throughout, particular in the supermarket scenes where it looks
overly bright on purpose due to the garish flourescent lights they always have. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack comes into
life for the scenes with music as well as for subtle use of atmospherics in the store, so there are no complaints here.
Extras-wise, first up is a Making Of (19:01), which starts off showing how it won the Best Narrative Short Film at
the Tribeca Film Festival in 2004, prior to making it into a feature-length movie, and also features interview snippets with
all the key cast and crew as well as on-set footage. Then comes three Deleted Scenes (6:00), all in letterbox 2.35:1
and they're more like alternate scenes or extended versions of what we've already seen.
There's also a Trailer (2:07) in anamorphic 2.35:1, which is best seen once you've watched the film so you don't get
any spoilers, and finally an Audio Commentary with director Sean Ellis and lead actor Sean Biggerstaff. I listened to a
few minutes of this and the film dialogue often sits at normal volume, thus drowning out the commentary.
The film is poorly-chaptered with just 12 of them (I always work on a rule of thumb of one per five minutes), the main menu
features clips of the movie and a small piece of the final track, She by Grand Avenue, and there are subtitles in English.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
begins with a spectacular scene as first year Uni student Ben (Sean Biggerstaff) breaks up with Suzy (Michelle Ryan)
when she voiciferously dumps him with her slow-motion words masked by the strains of Bellini's Casta Diva from the opera
'Norma', a wonderful piece that comes up again at other times during the film.
The anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen print is crisp and clear and well-lit throughout, particular in the supermarket scenes where it looks
overly bright on purpose due to the garish flourescent lights they always have. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack comes into
life for the scenes with music as well as for subtle use of atmospherics in the store, so there are no complaints here.
