Cashback
Directed by Sean Ellis
- drama
- comedy
- romance
The story
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.
What it’s like
Cool, desaturated London nights, with fluorescent supermarket aisles rendered in pale, sickly whites, and bright painterly flashes breaking into the grey whenever Ben's imagination takes over. Sean Ellis shoots much of it with a steady, observant camera that lingers on stillness: stock shelves, empty car parks, a man alone with his thoughts. The score is sparse and melancholic, with soft piano and near-silence between small bursts of sound, and the texture has the slightly grainy softness of 35mm. The vibe is wistful, quietly absurd and introspective, a film for late nights when you can't sleep and want company without noise. It moves unhurriedly, and its emotional arc follows a heartbroken young man slowly learning to see the ordinary world, and himself, differently. Sexual content appears in fantasy and frank conversation but is not graphic; violence is absent, and the mood stays gentle and bittersweet. It suits people who enjoy contemplative, observational British drama with a dreamy, art-school sensibility.
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