June 6, 2007

Cashback (2007) ***

Originally, ''Cashback'' was a 19-minute short film, nominated for an Academy Award in 2005. It was a story of a grocery-store clerk (Sean Biggerstaff, best known as Oliver Wood in the ''Harry Potter'' movies), who was able to make all other humans froze in place, allowing him to undress the girls and use them as nude models for his sketches. ''Cashback'' was so successful, director Sean Ellis then turned it into a feature, using exactly the same cast and including every scene of his original short. The story mostly revolves around Sean courting another grocery-store clerk (Emilia Fox), but we actually never see much of Emilia. Instead, most of the film's nudity involve actresses in brief cameo roles, like Irene Bagach, Keeley Hazell, Janine-May Tinsley, Hayley-Marie Coppin and many others. In fact, almost all of those nude scenes come from the short film. Surrealistic, whimsical and gently ironic, ''Cashback'' is a perfect date movie, despite its adult content.