Cashback

What would you do if you were able to stop time? Ben uses his time stopping for his artistic talent. Wait. That’s not the main point of this beautiful drama. Directed and written by Sean Ellis, Cashback is an excellent story about a young man who just experienced a terrible break-up and has developed insomnia because of it. In order to kill time he gets a night shift job in a grocery store and to pass the time there he develops this ability to stop time and observe the naked beauty of the women who shop there and draw every single one of them.

Ben Willis is a college art student with extraordinary talent, and with an artistic fascination with the female body. His break up hit him so hard that he could not sleep, after he gets the job at the grocery store he begins to interact with the wide spectrum of characters that he has to work with. He has a womanizing and overly competitive manager. A trickster pair of best friends that pass their time by doing some of the craziest stuff. And a few others, but most importantly, he meets Sharon Pintey the only female co-worker who he begins to develop a crush on, but cannot figure out how to let her know.

Every so often you get flashbacks to Ben’s previous crushes and the reasons as to why he has his fascination with the beauty of the female form. The story of the movie is very well put together and while it does indeed have its predictable moments these moments are forgiven by the creative license taken with the movie. The humor throughout the movie is often a little over the top, but so are most of the supporting characters.

Yes, this movie does in fact have nudity, but that is not the entirety of what the movie revolves around.

This still isn’t one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but it is very well put together and I’ll give it a 8/10.

Cashback

Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School

It’s not that often that I take a trip down the drama aisle in the movie section, but I saw a preview for this movie and absolutely had to watch it. Mostly because it had two of my favorite actors in it: Robert Carlyle and John Goodman. Also in part because I felt a connection with the main character in the preview. This is definitely a hidden gem of 2005 that did not get the recognition it deserved. The man who directed and wrote it was Randall Miller.

This film is a story about Frank Keane (Carlyle) and Steve Mills (Goodman). They each have their own tale in this beautifully woven story. Keane is a widowed man who moved from Great Britain to the United States bringing his family’s baking business with him. His story is one of recovery from his depression through a dancing school called Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. Mills’ tale is a sad one, he made a promise 40 years ago to the only woman he loved, that promise was: to not matter what, whether they were married, or had kids, or anything, that they would meet at Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School and from there see what happened. However, because of an accident that happens early on in the film introducing both of our main characters, Mills cannot go and asks Keane to go for him. Mills then proceeds to tell Keane, at Keane’s request, about how he met his love. These two stories intertwine very well and create a fantastic story about the two men.

There are a wide variety of characters, each of them are well made with the perfect actors and actresses playing them. There is light-hearted and witty humor, as well as powerful emotional moments as Keane goes through his healing process. The first time I saw it, this film became one of my favorites, and I hope you find it to be a grand movie as well.

Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School