Cha Cha Real Smooth proves it’s possible for a director to love his character way too much
Cha Cha Real Smooth tries so hard to be sincere. The second feature by writer-director-actor Cooper Raiff (after 2020’s Shithouse) is a coming-of-age narrative that doesn’t feature any outward villains and doesn’t judge any of its characters. Its protagonist, Andrew (Raiff), is akin to Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate: He just graduated from college with little idea of what to do with his life. In his last summer before firmly stepping into adulthood, he must mature if he hopes to find love.
This is a story written and directed by a 23-year-old. That reality defines Cha Cha Real Smooth’s truest virtue (blissful naïveté) and its grandest flaw — a blithering unawareness of reality. It’s a film defined by its myopic, narrow bandwidth.
Shithouse is a college comedy about a lonely freshman trying to connect with people. With Cha Cha Real Smooth, Raiff moves the timeline forward a few years to navigate a familiar type of post-graduate malaise. Andrew moves back in with his doting mom (Leslie Mann) and his laconic stepfather, Greg (Brad Garrett). He spends his days working at a fast-food place called Meat Sticks, and his nights sleeping on the bedroom floor of his dorky little brother, David (Evan Assante). Andrew has always had terrible luck with women, especially older, more mature women. An early, charming scene witnesses a preteen Andrew approaching a woman after a bar mitzvah. She lets him down politely. A decade later, his college sweetheart has left him and headed to Europe, and Andrew is devastated, unsure whether to chase her or move on.
After a few local New Jersey moms notice Andrew’s bacchanalian talents, he becomes a party-starter for bar and bat mitzvahs. The liminal settings provide a fascinating frame for
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