I wrote up these comments for some friends a while ago but don't think I posted them here:
CASHBACK.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460740/
A romantic comedy for men. Meaning there are some naked women and reflections on the importance of same. I don't recall a film that so well presents the decent, sensitive male's young lust and devotion to the female form. It would be a good date film if your date were of an understanding nature. [Later: showed it to my wife. She laughed, but agreed it is mainly for men].
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Ben is a serious, slightly morose art student devoted to drawing women. He's good at drawing and painting, but average clumsy at the kissing and touching part. He's broken up with his girlfriend and now can't sleep. At all, for weeks. He gets a night job at the local mega-supermarket where the other males are crudely comical goofy boneheads. But (foreshadowing) there is nice young woman at the checkout counter.
The work is so boring, time moves so slowly, that Ben learns how to stop it entirely. Everyone freezes like statues while he walks around observing them. You can take this as a science fiction device or simply as Ben's fantasy; it doesn't much matter. So naturally, he undresses the women shoppers and draws them. "I wonder if they'd be mad if they knew?" he wonders.
It's funny, really! And romantic: the work Ben produces during this time brings him eventual success and love.
Some reviewers dinged it for "gratuitous nudity", a strange criticism. A movie about flying is going to have excess airplanes and one about racing is going to have surplus cars, in neither case "gratuitous". You can't make a movie about male lust and love and obsession with female beauty without naked women. It's an essential part of the story. Erotic, concupiscent, prurient: well, sure. That's the point. Roger Ebert understood that in his review. I think this film honestly presents an aspect of life not covered in your average R-rated "romance/passion" genre movie.
The film was expanded from a 20-minute short. The core is fine; padding out the rest of the time produces some funny bits, but is pretty clumsy and haphazard in spots. The naked women look like Euro-fashion models, which is cheating, but if it's Ben's fantasy he can have the subjects he wants.
Great UK cast.
* * *
I was going to do a summary posting for other "little" films people might have missed. This one, NORTHFORK, and WILDERNESS SURVIVAL FOR GIRLS, and some others.
-Bill
