Synopsis
Fresh out of college and stuck at his New Jersey home without a clear path forward, 22-year-old Andrew begins working as a party starter for bar/bat mitzvahs—where he strikes up a unique friendship with a young mom and her teenage daughter.
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Cast
- Cooper RaiffAndrew
- Dakota JohnsonDomino
- Vanessa BurghardtLola
- Evan AssanteDavid
- Leslie MannLisa
- Brad GarrettGreg
- Raúl CastilloJoseph
- Amara PedrosoMaya
- Odeya RushMacy
- Brooklyn RamirezMargaret
Recommendations
- 91
The Film Stage
It’s hard to find movies—no matter their scope—that grasp and depict the human experience with the kind of honesty and dexterity Raiff has committed to the screen so far. - 90
TheWrap
Avoiding the sophomore slump, Raiff’s delightfully sigh-worthy Cha Char Real Smooth is the type of sincere enterprise that could easily be spoiled with hackneyed platitudes or simplistically rose-colored plot points, yet here it sings with a wondrous candor and an unforced dramatic rhythm that turns it mightily irresistible. - 90
Slashfilm
Even if its archetypes might feel overly familiar, the formula works for a reason, and when anything is executed with such pure-hearted joy and affection for its characters, you can't help but smile. - 83
IndieWire
Raiff scales up the disarming earnestness of his debut without losing any of its DIY intimacy. - 83
The Playlist
Cha Cha Real Smooth is an affable, heart-on-its-sleeve winner. - 83
Entertainment Weekly
Cha Cha feels like both a fitting showcase for a young auteur like Raiff and a larger marker of how much movie masculinity has evolved: a real-smooth manifesto for the anti-toxic man. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
Building on the strengths of his justly celebrated debut, maintaining its distinctive point-of-view while broadening the scope of its sympathy, Cooper Raiff‘s Cha Cha Real Smooth is a more mainstream film than 2020’s Shithouse without feeling the least bit generic. - 70
Screen Daily
There’s a slightness to this tale, and also a nagging familiarity in its exploration of twenty-something restlessness, but Raiff’s compassionate eye — paired with Dakota Johnson’s melancholy turn — results in a touching, understated affair.
