The engaging and satisfying Cha Cha Real Smooth, an adult-coming-of-age romantic dramedy, is surprisingly textured. The charming but feckless Andrew (Cooper Riff) has emerged from a fun college experience that has not prepared him for the grown up world. His high-achieving college girlfriend has correctly assessed that he has no plan for life after college and, hence, doesn’t have a future. Andrew’s only alternative is moving back with his mom (Leslie Mann), Stepdad Greg (Brad Garret) and his little brother (Evan Assante) and taking a humiliating job at the mall.
Andrew stumbles into a new gig that leverages his one true skill – he becomes a bar/bat mitzvah party starter, the guy who can get everyone (including 13-year-olds and their parents) on to the dance floor. On the job he meets the autistic girl Lola (Vanessa Burghard) and her young mom Domino (Dakota Johnson). (She’s not a stripper although Domino is a stripper name if there ever was one).
Andrew and Domino bond over Andrew’s compassionate treatment of Lola. The 32-year-old Domino, however, is a damaged soul, having married very young, only to have been left immediately by Lola’s dad to raise an autistic kid on her own. Domino now has a high-achieving fiance (Raul Castillo), who travels a lot.
This premise is ripe for for a conventional rom com or a sex comedy or a bawdy, low-brow teen comedy. However, Cha Cha Real Smooth departs from the predictable and heads into unexpected directions driven by its characters. Every character struggles with something – Andrew’s mom is bipolar, Stepdad Greg is wooden and tonedeaf, the little brother is awkwardly stumbling into adolescence, and Andrew, of course is immature and aimless. Even the girl who was All That at Andrew’s high school is also drifting and wondering if she “peaked in high school”.
But, with the exception of a couple middle school bullies and their enabling dad, everybody in Cha Cha Real Smooth is a decent person. In this era of Snark, here are good people, with their foibles and eccentricities just trying to navigate life.
This refreshing aspect of Cha Cha Real Smooth comes from the characters written by Cooper Raiff, who also directed and, of course, stars as Andrew. This is Raiff’s second feature as a writer-director (following Shithouse), and, at age 25, he has proved that he is a promising talent. Especially as a writer.
Dakota Johnson’s performance is one of her best. Her Domino is so invested in her daughter that the rest of her life is chaotic; she’s well-schooled in hard knocks, leaving her much wiser than Andrew, but fearful of accepting good developments in her life.
The rest of the cast is very good, too. Leslie Mann continues to be a comedic treasure.
Cha Cha Real Smooth is streaming on AppleTV.