Film

Let us now praise clever short films like 2004’s “Cashback,” which picked up an Oscar nomination and a string of festival prizes. But let us not allow the makers of said short films to turn their ingenious little 18 minutes of fun into bloated, directionless self-indulgences like Cashback.

Ben Willis (Biggerstaff, who deserves a medal for surviving junior high with a name like that) is an art-school mope who has just broken up with his girlfriend Suzy (Ryan), as he explains in droning voiceover narration while we see Ryan’s face distorted in a slow-motion rant. “Ah,” you are meant to say, “a film with a distinctive visual style.” And Ellis is relentless in his assertion of a style, with wacky camera angles, slow-motion galore and—the film’s signature move—freeze-frames in which Ben can move freely while everyone else is immobile.

Ben, you see, suffers from postbreakup insomnia and takes a night job at the local supermarket. There he discovers that either he has a vivid, sleep-deprivation–induced imagination or he can actually stop time and linger in a moment.

Being an art student, Ben uses this talent to strip the female customers and draw their beauty. This isn’t creepy, see, because he’s an art student and appreciates the beauty of the female form. Right. Tell it to the judge.

You can feel Ellis padding his earlier short script with things like an endless soccer match. There were moments when we wondered if time hadn’t stopped for us, and we’d be trapped forever in the middle of this film.