Cashback
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: July 20, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
VarietyJustin Chang
Slickly charming, genteelly erotic and directed with supreme polish, Cashback is a conventional romantic comedy that plays unconventional games with time and memory. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
A modest but engaging film that mixes hormonal surges with art-house ingenuity. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
It's no small trick to blend fantasy, slapstick and genuine emotion, but Ellis pulls it off with whimsy to spare. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Imagine "Clerks" director 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 full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The film's structure is a little awkward, almost certainly as a result of its being expanded from 20 minutes to 97. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A sleek little meditation on beauty, desire, love and time. Now and then, it's fairly sophisticated stuff. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Writer-director Sean Ellis more-or-less successfully expands his Academy Award-nominated 18-minute short to full length, showcasing his talented young cast to good effect. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is lightweight, as it should be. Read full review
60
EmpireEmily Phillips
Much more than a tits and arse farce, this is an enjoyable, if lightweight effort. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJim Ridley
The movie is too cute by half, made close to unbearable whenever Ben's narration spews glib pseudo-profundities about memory and temporal stillness. But the flaky humor of wage slaves serial-killing time is good, rude fun. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
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 full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
With Biggerstaff's breathless narration explaining every detail of the action, Cashback seems aimed at an audience that would rather be told a story than shown a movie. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Ellis' slight film has its charms, and the backstory he concocted to lead into the original 18-minute short is effective. But the film lags badly in the middle. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Best known as a still photographer, Ellis has a powerful motif in the idea of stopping time, yet he can't seem to move his characters along. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
In short form, Cashback simply dealt with how a quirky group of supermarket employees whiled away the endless hours of a night shift, but the feature version spoils that economy by tacking on a romantic subplot and indulging its hero's precious ruminations on love and art. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMatt Zoller Seitz
Cashback suggests a “Malcolm in the Middle” episode directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The hero’s pained, hilarious childhood flashbacks deserve a much better movie. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyScott Brown
Director Sean Ellis has a lovely eye, but he's set the film in his blind spot. Not only can't he distinguish between art and porn, savoring and wallowing, universal truths and exhausted clichés -- he doesn't even seem interested in these distinctions. Read full review
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