Cashback

Expanded from an Oscar-nominated short about a lovelorn artist who freezes time (and paints oh-so-respectful nudes of unwitting women), Cashback aspires to be equal parts Volkswagen ad and Nicholson Baker’s The Fermata, yet compares unfavorably to both. 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. D