Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)

I love it when a movie surprises me, exceeds my expectations. I hadn’t seen the debut film by wunderkind writer/director Cooper Raiff so I wasn’t quite prepared for exactly what he could deliver. Cha Cha Real Smooth touched me on a few levels which all came out of left field and left me feeling very moved, excited to see what Raiff can do next.

Smooth is about growing up, not in the “coming of age” way we are used to, but in coming to terms with deeper understandings of relationships and connections in ways that one has to have lived to truly understand. Raiff’s Andrew is a romantic soul who has so much love to give and this is the story of one of his first stumbles into maturity. He is the sort of charismatic young man who has a positive influence on those around him, and his rom com ideas of how love is supposed to be are noble but imperfect. We see that in how he watches his mother move through her second marriage, how he encourages his younger brother’s first adolescent feelings, and how he pursues love for himself. Smooth is about him coming to understand a deeper and more real experience of love in all its complications.

I also appreciated how the film explores heterosexuality in a way that eschews much of the toxic masculinity that pervades our straight romantic narratives. I observe so many heterosexual men in how they truly do not like women, not in a wholistic way, but in a way that is about using their parts. But every now and then we get pop culture narratives that explore heterosexual men who truly admire women, see them as partners in their explorations of connection, and become better humans for those connections. Smooth is one of those stories. Andrew see the women around him, from his crush (I don’t mean that word in a reductive way), to her daughter with whom he makes another real connection, to his mother as full humans with whom he is in relationship with. They are not there to satisfy his needs or deliver on some sort of birthright. And this makes Smooth be something greater than the traditional romantic stories. 

This is Andrew’s story. His journey. But it is about him becoming a man because of how he makes his connections in the world, both with the women in his life and the other men, like his step father, his younger brother, and the man who love the same woman he does. There is a moment where he apologizes to that character and says “I’m just a dumb kid” and that man responds with respect and caring. Real Smooth is one of the best explorations of masculinity I have seen from heterosexuals in a very long time. And in many ways it gave me hope that. Maybe they aren’t completely lost after all.

Raiff’s performance is mostly successful due to his enduring charm and presence but his cast is giving A game work here. Johnson give a subtle but complex performance and Mann is equally compelling. Everyone is required to be both funny and moving at the same time and they all succeed. Smooth feels like a real collaboration despite it also feeling like Raiff’s vision.

I am very interested in what Raiff will do next. I hope he can maintain the insight and honesty along with the just delightful whimsy that he displays here. 

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Starring: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett, Raúl Castillo, Vanessa Burghardt

Writer/Director: Cooper Raiff