Cashback.

"There are a few moments of truth in Cashback, but those... are all cribbed from other movies and television shows," grumbles Matt Singer at IFC News.

"The movie is too cute by half," concedes Jim Ridley in the Voice. "But the flaky humor of wage slaves serial-killing time is good, rude fun; the trompe l'oeil camera trickery creates a woozy sleepwalking effect; and [director Sean] Ellis (a fashion photographer who's collaborated with David Lynch) and cinematographer Angus Hudson shoot the immaculate rows of paper towels and canned veggies with an Andreas Gursky-like eye for symmetrical splendor."

Matt Riviera finds "real beauty - and not a little humor."

Updated through 7/20.

Updates, 7/19: IndieWIRE interviews Ellis.

"Cashback aims for a Risky Business-type meld of sex comedy and art film, but doesn't have the steam to satisfy either," writes Stephen Snart in the L Magazine.

Updates, 7/20: "With its depressive, wishy-washy hero and alterna-pop soundtrack, Cashback wants to be a 21st-century answer to The Graduate (whose hero was also named Ben)," writes Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times. "But between the film's validation of Ben's adolescent concept of beauty, its wafer-thin characterizations, its gorgeous but overwrought widescreen photography and its abundance of 'How did they do that?' trick shots, Cashback instead suggests a Malcolm in the Middle episode directed by Paul Thomas Anderson."

"Though graced with luscious imagery and dramatic soundtrack swells of Ravel and Bellini, all that useless beauty serves to prop up a conventional romantic comedy that's neither affecting nor funny," adds Scott Tobias at the AV Club.

"Ellis draws a very romantic portrait of a young artist as he ponders love, beauty and living in the moment," writes Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. "In expanding the story to feature length, he makes some missteps, but all in all maintains the charming tone that dominated the original version."

Posted by dwhudson at July 18, 2007 12:28 PM