Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff, 2022)

[DarkImbecile]

Cooper Raiff's Cha Cha Real Smooth was one of the more fondly regarded films at Sundance this year, and it's pretty easy to see why: Raiff's mumblecore script and lead performance ooze an easy charm that is only partially undercut by an undercurrent of self-regard and sheltered privilege that threatens but never quite manages to topple the whole enterprise.

An immature, sometimes hotheaded suburban man-child adrift in a post-college morass of shitty jobs, disinterested women, and a burgeoning drinking problem, Raiff's Andrew uses his energy and the aforementioned charm to start working as a bar/bat mitzvah party starter, and strikes up a relationship with autistic teen Lola and her mother Domino — Dakota Johnson, whose melancholic sexiness is the best part of the film. His attempts to ingratiate himself into their lives — as a sitter for Lola, and a friend and maybe more with Domino — are complicated by her fiancé, his own inability to understand her and himself, and an uncertainty about what he actually wants out of life. In short, the Sundanciest premise of all the Sundance movies I saw this year.

Still, Raiff's script is funny and fast-moving, and his directorial strength — here, at least, not having seen his previous effort Shithouse — is in moderating just the right balance of humor, emotion, and angst from a talented cast of funny and attractive people. There's not much in the way of real friction or stakes outside of Andrew's own self-actualization and development, but there's enough interest taken in the supporting characters to undercut what could have easily been an exercise in tedious navel gazing.

I'll be curious to see how this is received on general release and how Raiff develops as a filmmaker; it's easy to imagine a scenario where he becomes the latest filmmaker never to escape the gravity well of this particular sub-genre despite his talent (particularly as a writer), but I could also see him broadening his ambitions and attracting the kind of talent needed to blossom into something more complete and exciting. It's kind of like a real-life mumblecore drama!

[therewillbeblus]

Cooper Raiff's Cha Cha Real Smooth was one of the more fondly regarded films at Sundance this year, and it's pretty easy to see why: Raiff's mumblecore script and lead performance ooze an easy charm that is only partially undercut by an undercurrent of self-regard and sheltered privilege that threatens but never quite manages to topple the whole enterprise.

An immature, sometimes hotheaded suburban man-child adrift in a post-college morass of shitty jobs, disinterested women, and a burgeoning drinking problem, Raiff's Andrew uses his energy and the aforementioned charm to start working as a bar/bat mitzvah party starter, and strikes up a relationship with autistic teen Lola and her mother Domino — Dakota Johnson, whose melancholic sexiness is the best part of the film. His attempts to ingratiate himself into their lives — as a sitter for Lola, and a friend and maybe more with Domino — are complicated by her fiancé, his own inability to understand her and himself, and an uncertainty about what he actually wants out of life. In short, the Sundanciest premise of all the Sundance movies I saw this year.

Still, Raiff's script is funny and fast-moving, and his directorial strength — here, at least, not having seen his previous effort Shithouse — is in moderating just the right balance of humor, emotion, and angst from a talented cast of funny and attractive people. There's not much in the way of real friction or stakes outside of Andrew's own self-actualization and development, but there's enough interest taken in the supporting characters to undercut what could have easily been an exercise in tedious navel gazing.

I'll be curious to see how this is received on general release and how Raiff develops as a filmmaker; it's easy to imagine a scenario where he becomes the latest filmmaker never to escape the gravity well of this particular sub-genre despite his talent (particularly as a writer), but I could also see him broadening his ambitions and attracting the kind of talent needed to blossom into something more complete and exciting. It's kind of like a real-life mumblecore drama!

I co-sign basically your whole writeup, but after taking some issue with the self-indulgence (particularly in some winking comically-timed edits), I was able to chalk this up to unintentional self-reflexivity of the core themes on the part or the writer/director/star, and was completely taken by this charming coming-of-age film for the developmental stage of Emerging Adulthood created for white middle-upper class boomerang babies in Gen Y/Z. This film is hilarious, sad, deep, and honest, relatable to its demographic (having grown up in a predominantly Jewish community, I got that extra element as well). It plays into the beats of small character-based indie films and callbacks to star-studded emotional crowdpleasers alike (I was reminded of the artifice-breeding-sincerity-of-heart in Cameron Crowe’s best work, sorta like Garden State meets Jerry Maguire). Especially considering this narrative is built around an extroverted character wearing layers of defensive ‘happy’ makeup that runs hard against the current of the kind of people I choose to surround myself with, it felt like an uphill battle and ultimate triumph to win at least this audience member over, but it did, and then when I thought the film might end, it continued to lay on welcome, concise bouts of earned drama. If only this kind of sweet, small movie could with BP instead of the likes of CODA..

[therewillbeblus]

Cooper Raiff’s Cha Cha Real Smooth

[DarkImbecile]

Manhola Dargis shredded this ahead of its release this weekend

[dekadetia]

Manohla Dargis shredded this ahead of its release this weekend

Prior to this it was planned in Slant, The Guardian and Little White Lies as well (though most other notices have been positive). I can't help but think Raiff may have done himself a
bit of a disservice with some critics by playing the lead in his own movie for the second time in a row, but I also think his screen presence is a huge part of why the film works. It's a really fine effort from someone so young at a time when too few in his age cohort are getting a shot like this. And though it's not as refined as his new film, I highly recommend Shithouse as well.

[Never Cursed]

I mean I wouldn't call Bradshaw's review an outright pan (he gave it 3 stars after all), but it does otherwise seem that the line against this movie is that it's the worst excesses of male-made-and-obsessed mumblecore/Garden State-type stuff for the 2020s (which surely seems a bit harsh)

[dekadetia]

I mean I wouldn't call Bradshaw's review an outright pan (he gave it 3 stars after all), but it does otherwise seem that the line against this movie is that it's the worst excesses of male-made-and-obsessed mumblecore/Garden State-type stuff for the 2020s (which surely seems a bit harsh)

I was looking at Benjamin Lee's review, but I'm glad you pointed to Bradshaw's which is indeed more favorable and which I hadn't seen.

[Never Cursed]

Hah, I honestly wasn't aware that anyone else was writing film reviews for The Guardian other than Bradshaw. Seems like that review was written as soon as the writer saw it at Sundance, so I definitely think taking its conclusions with a slightly larger grain of salt than usual is warranted in general

[therewillbeblus]

These critics are cha cha'in real rough

[DarkImbecile]

These critics are cha cha'in real rough

Wait until Dargis sees this

[therewillbeblus]

I watched this a second time and loved it just as much (also, noticed in the opening credits that Este Haim collaborated on the score!), but then I watched Raiff's first feature, Shithouse, and I think it's perhaps even better. While Cha Cha Real Smooth is definitely laugh-out-loud funnier, and slicker in how its edited with forward momentum, Shithouse has the audacity to dwell in the caustic poignancy of an earlier transition into emerging adulthood with acute authenticity, including allowing its humor to be unforced and subtler in its ambitions. The film accomplishes a lot of what Linklater does with a mumblecore rhythm, and it succeeds in going to unexpected places for such an apparently paint-by-numbers narrative. I'm not going to spoil anything, but this is a rare movie where I lost track of time and thought it was over when a faux-coda kicked in, only to discover that the coda was the entire second half, taking an opportunity to lean into discomfort and milking it to incredibly raw lengths. I had no idea how necessary this artistic choice was until it reflexively stayed with the protagonists to embody the ethos they're trying to avoid. The film won't let them, won't serve as a micro-transitional stage to permit a return to complacency when it's over. That's a tremendously risky move, but one the film manages to pull off in spades, through all the cringecore it dives into headfirst over and over.

Occasionally the aesthetic choices seem at odds with one another (I don't see any relationship or internal logic for why there are objective extended takes from afar during certain moments, and intrusive, involving subjective ones during other times, as they're all equally vulnerable and formative experiences). Also, like Cha Cha, I'm not always taken by Raiff's emotional regurgitations which linger in a manner that probably only bothers me knowing he's the writer/director too. The bits feel a bit conceited and take me out of the picture, but I also believe that Raiff is pulling from his own history and knows his subjects and material well. Either way, any qualms are easy to forgive, since he gets so much right about the experience of being a college freshman, and the need to participate in life to get anything out of it. A simple silent scene like shooting hoops out in the wild, only for a stranger to come up and feed him the ball, leading to a supportive union that's likely elusive but means so much to both of them, says so much about the gifts from engaging in a social existence without overstating them. Also, these are just... real people, which is all you can ask from a mumblecore-ish indie movie. Raiff is good playing himself, but the always-welcome Dylan Gelula is fantastic in her lived-in perf. With two strong films under his belt, I'm excited to see what Raiff does next.