Cynics need not apply to Cooper Raiff’s new film Cha Cha Real Smooth, dropping today in theaters and tomorrow on AppleTV+.
Written and directed by Raiff (Shithouse), the film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to general acclaim. Admittedly, it does feel tailor-made for that market, checking off all of the appropriate boxes for a Sundance product. Wistful, aimless lead. Quirky family. Mental illness. Inclusive casting. The list goes on…
That said, Cha Cha Real Smooth is actually a very charming, deeply felt film that, despite its Sundance leanings, actually earns its applause. Raiff’s low-key directorial style, investment in characters, and character-driven narrative works for me. In ways, his instincts remind me of the very best of James L. Brooks’ instincts. I sincerely hope he delivers on that comparison.
Cha Cha Real Smooth stars Raiff as Andrew, a recent college graduate adrift in life. His college girlfriend seems to have moved on. He lacks the clarity of ambition he thought he’d have post-college. He’s living at home in his mother and step-father’s house, sleeping on the floor in his younger brother’s room. The only thing he truly seems suited for is, thanks to an early childhood obsession, being the life of the party. Enter a potential (if admittedly ill-advised) career as a Bar Mitzvah party host where he meets someone who seems to give his life purpose, the engaged Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter Lola (Vanessa Burghardt) who is on the autism spectrum.
The film’s joy is squarely focused within the character interactions. Raiff’s natural charisma and magnetic energy radiates in every interaction he has. What’s most important to know about his Andrew is, despite making a number of ill-advised choices, he’s not a bad person. Quite the opposite, in fact. He’s endearingly kind hearted and invested in others. Like most of us, he has multiple unresolved issues preventing him from truly being the best version of himself. One of those unresolved issues is the relationship with his bipolar mother, wonderfully played by Leslie Mann. They have a scene toward the end of the film where Andrew sits on their kitchen island having a midnight snack like a pre-teen boy, and she jumps on the island to join him. It’s an incredibly poignant and natural moment, one of many within the film.
Raiff also brings Dakota Johnson one of her very best roles as Domino, a woman who wants to desperately to escape a bad reputation and do the right thing. Whatever the right thing is. Johnson gives a fully realized, lived-in performance, something of an indie-scale variation on Helen Hunt’s work in As Good As It Gets. She’s a mother who fiercely protects her child despite falling prey to her worst instincts. It’s a great role, and Johnson is fantastic in it.
Raiff, himself, is a better writer/director than he is an actor, but he’s still quite good in the role. My issues with his performance are minor. He coasts on chemistry and charisma, which are his strengths, but he sometimes feels studied and over-prepared. It’s an odd contradiction I’ve not encountered often. Still, he’s quite good in the role, and our attention never wavers from him or his plight. I suspect much of that is due to his enormous strengths behind the camera. Raiff is a fantastic writer, one who intimately understands all of his characters. As a director, he gives his actors room to explore their roles, to fully inhabit them in unique, lived-in ways.
Cha Cha Real Smooth could, in some ways, been seen as a distant relative of The Catcher in the Rye, although Raiff’s Andrew doesn’t necessarily have the suicidal angst that Holden Caulfield holds. You’re never once concerned that Andrew will land in an institution, maybe an accidental DUI sure but nothing along the lines of deliberate self-harm. Cha Cha is one of those sweet, smaller films that Sundance specializes in that may never be the best film of the year but it isn’t one you’ll quickly forget. Its charms are apparent and abundant, and Cooper Raiff is a talent to watch for certain.