'Cha Cha Real Smooth' is Gen Z's The Graduate | movie review

In Cha Cha Real Smooth, a recent college grad tries to find his purpose in life as he takes up a side hustle as a bar mitzvah party starter

Cha Cha Real Smooth premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

The greatest coming-of-age movies — like Lady Bird and The Graduate — understand that although there is a central protagonist, they are not the main character. In the beginning, they believe they are the center of the universe but eventually learn there is more to their lives than what they see. That everyone surrounding them is the main character of their own lives. That’s what makes Cooper Raiff’s sophomore feature Cha Cha Real Smooth so effortlessly charming as a perfectly pitched dramedy. Although Andrew (Raiff) filters everyone else’s experience around him through his own, Raiff, as the writer-director of the film, gives color to everyone.

Just like The Graduate, Andrew is newly graduated. His college girlfriend is off to Barcelona for her Albright Fellowship and he’s back in his hometown of Livingston, New Jersey working at “Meat Sticks” — where they sell meat… on sticks. He’s as aimless as they come. He doesn’t even have his childhood home to return to as his mother (Leslie Mann) has moved in with his stepfather (Brad Garrett) and has to sleep on the floor in his tween brother David’s (Evan Assante) room.

However, his life finally finds some direction when he takes it upon himself to liven up a subdued bar mitzvah he’s accompanying his brother to. In particular, he hones in on young mother Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter Lola (Vanessa Burghardt) who starts to break out of her shell when Andrew dances with her. It’s worth singling out Burghardt here, an autistic actress who’s playing an autistic character, whose performance rings nothing but sincere.

Before long, he’s ambushed in the parking lot. “You are being swarmed by Jewish mothers who are recruiting you to be our motivational dancer,” says one of the mothers. For Andrew, it seems like quick money and something he genuinely enjoys. However, this isn’t just a bar mitzvah-set The Wedding Singer. Raiff focuses the movie on Andrew’s avoidance — of responsibility, of making decisions, of coming-of-age.

For how quiet the story is, it says magnitudes about post-college aimlessness. Not just for recent graduates, though. What Cha Cha Real Smooth presupposes is that no one has truly “figured it out” as an adult. Domino, for instance, is facing down her marriage to lawyer Joseph (Looking’s Raúl Castillo) and confides her trepidation to Andrew. The wonder of the movie is that wherever you think this triangle goes, you’re probably wrong. Both Raiff and Johnson ooze with chemistry as two people set on different paths but completely empathetic to the other’s plights.

There’s so much sweetness, witty humor, and swoon-worthy relationships (platonic and otherwise) in this movie. But despite a title and premise that errs towards comedy, Cha Cha Real Smooth is a drama that knows itself so well with Lola serving as the movie’s foil. “Sometimes I enjoy being in an empty room,” she tells Andrew, who has become her de facto babysitter. “Well, I’m jealous,” he responds, “I wish I could do that.” She almost doesn’t understand the answer. By the end of the movie, you’ll understand that she’s right.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.