Cha Cha Real Smooth
**Seen at the 2022 Atlanta Film Festival.
When you see that the star of the movie is also the writer and director, and has also cast himself in a nominally “romantic lead” role opposite attractive women, it’s hard not to be skeptical at first. But Cooper Raiff, the writer, director and star of “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” isn’t after conventional Hollywood tropes; he’s more interested in breaking them down into something honest and sincere. The result is a film that connects with every demographic represented, because everyone has something going on, and no one is treated as an antagonist, in the grand scheme of things.
Take the character of Joseph (Raúl Castillo). Joseph is the fiancee of Domino (Dakota Johnson), whom we meet with her daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), at a Bar Mitzvah early in the film. In personality, this character is as stoic as Domino as open to Andrew (Raiff). A lawyer, he’s often away on cases in Chicago, leaving Domino to take care of Lola, who is autistic. Right away, you probably have an idea of where this arc is going, but Raiff isn’t interested in just creating wanton chaos to reveal the worst of some of these characters; instead, he’s showing characters possibilities of what could be, and giving them choices to make. Every choice that is made by these characters at the end of this film makes sense, because possibilities could still fall apart- maintaining stability is what matters, especially when your life is not just about you, and even if the possibilities caused a rift, showing gratitude when someone does the right thing is never bad.
Andrew is a 22-year-old who’s just finished college, and whose girlfriend has gone to Barcelona to further her study. Andrew has moved back home with his mother (the wonderful Leslie Mann), her husband (Brad Garrett), and his brother, David (Evan Assante). Like a lot of 20-somethings, he thinks he knows what he wants to do, but really, he has no clue. He hopes to make enough money to go be with his girlfriend, but the fast food place at the mall he ends up working at doesn’t feel like where he saw himself after college. Much of his time is spent taking David to Bar and Bot Mitzvahs in town, after his mother- who is bipolar- has an episode, and is embarrassed to do so. It’s at one of these when he meets Domino and Lola, who are off on their own, and he also finds a calling, as it were- party starter. Several other parents want to hire him to do this. As this series of Mitzvahs progresses, he spends more time with Domino and Lola, and things seem to be headed in a different direction for him.
One of the things that makes “Cha Cha Real Smooth” so effective is Andrew’s ability to connect with anyone, of any age bracket, and make them feel like he genuinely cares that they’re there. That’s not an easy thing to do, much less make believable for a character in a movie, but it’s crucial to the way this film works. When he interacts with Lola, he doesn’t do it in a condescending way, and that helps him earn Domino’s trust. Most importantly, he treats Lola as an individual with her own agency and choices she can make; this speaks a lot to the way Raiff views people, I think, and I’m sure it’s one of the reasons Johnson- who’s also a producer on the film- probably wanted to make the film. Her performance is probably the best we’ve seen her yet, as a woman who became a mother too early, was thrown greater challenges than she expected as a result, and has accepted the responsibility of what that means. With Andrew, she sees someone who might be able to help, albeit for a short period of time, and doesn’t shy away from challenges. The film earns the romantic tension between Domino and Andrew, and it also earns how it’s resolved.
There are little moments throughout this film that I adore. One in particular is late between Andrew and his mom. Andrew’s life is finally starting to take shape, and he’s finally starting to see happiness for himself. He has been walking by their old house, and it has him thinking about how happy his childhood was. It’s a beautiful moment that makes me want to do the same for my own mom. There’s also a moment earlier in the film where Andrew is sitting with Lola while Domino goes out. He worries he’s worn her out, and she tells him how comforting it is for her to just be in a room by herself. By the end, he seems to start to understand that. Once I figured that out for myself, my life started to sort myself out, as well. This film is about a young man just prior to that, and it’s a winner.
