Sundance review: 'Cha Cha Real Smooth' is an earnest semi-romance that shows Cooper Raiff to be a charming triple-threat — writer, director and star

If writer-director-actor Cooper Raiff’s name wasn’t already in your mental list of up-and-coming filmmakers after his 2020 college comedy “Shithouse,” his new semi-romantic comedy “Cha Cha Real Smooth” should be your wake-up call to this guy’s extraordinary talent and big heart.

Raiff plays Andrew, 22, a recent college graduate who isn’t sure what to do next. He wants to go to Barcelona, where his college girlfriend Maya (Amara Pedroso) is studying on a Fulbright scholarship. Instead, he’s moved back home to New Jersey — living with his mom, Lisa (Leslie Mann), his 13-year-old brother David (Evan Assante), and mom’s gruff new husband, Greg (Brad Garrett) — and has a job selling hot dogs at the mall.

Since David is 13, he’s been invited to a lot of bar and bat mitzvahs this summer and fall. Andrew ends up at one, having drinks with college friend Macy (Odeya Rush), when he notices a beautiful woman sitting across the room. This is Domino (Dakota Johnson), who is sitting with her autistic daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), who is too nervous to join her classmates on the dance floor.

David urges Andrew to energize the boring bat mitzvah, and he’s got the natural charm and reckless energy to do it. He also manages to convince Lola to dance, which impresses Domino. By the end of the night, the other Jewish mothers are wanting to hire David to be a “party starter,” which becomes a semi-professional gig.

At the next bar mitzvah, Andrew shows his temper — getting in the face of the the parents of a kid bullying Lola — and his reliance on vodka to keep himself entertaining. He also shows resourcefulness when he helps Domino with a bathroom emergency. Soon, even though Domino is engaged to a lawyer, Joseph (Raúl Castillo), who’s working on a case in Chicago, a tentative relationship starts to blossom between Andrew and Domino. (Older women are a pattern for Andrew; in a prologue, Raiff shows us a 14-year-old Andrew, played by Javien Mercado, getting his heart broken when he falls for someone in her 20s.)

When not falling for Domino, Andrew is trying to understand his mom’s attraction to the grumpy Greg, and working to impart some romantic wisdom to David, who is building up to a first kiss with his crush, Margaret (Brooklyn Ramirez).

Raiff has a knack for off-kilter dialogue, and for staging intimate conversations between characters where much is both spoken and unspoken. Raiff’s scenes with Johnson crackle with romantic possibilities, and he’s quite charming as babysitter and friend to Lola, whose guileless honesty is a refreshing change in a world where people guardedly hide their feelings. (Burghardt is making her movie debut here, and she’s a tremendous find.)

“Cha Cha Real Smooth” has a few narrative bumps along the way, but even those come through as earnest efforts to let the characters connect. The movie makes me want to look up “Shithouse,” and look forward to what Raiff does next. 

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‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

★★★1/2

Premiered Sunday, January 23, in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Screens again on the festival portal, Tuesday, January 25, for a 24-hour window starting at 8 a.m. Not rated, but probably R for sexual content, language, alcohol use and mild violence. Running time: 109 minutes.