Cha Cha Real Smooth

Cha Cha Real Smooth is perfect because it never set out to be anything close to a rom-com. Raiff focused instead on what it is that brings people together, which has more to do with attraction than anything else in cinema.

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.

Raiff scales up the disarming earnestness of his debut without losing any of its DIY intimacy.

Raiff offers some impressive tonal mixtures and narrative surprises along the way, and even though his third act sags a bit, the performances—particularly from an achingly melancholy Dakota Johnson— remain compelling until the end.

What’s most impressive about Cha Cha Raal Smooth isn’t Raiff’s riffing, his character’s offhanded charm and his semi-“smooth” cha cha moves. It’s the deft way he lets the viewer figure things out.

The entire film is tinged with a cloying glaze that seeps into the interstices of the drama and limits his characters’ range of motion.

I didn’t believe a single second in Cha Cha Real Smooth, but the movie isn’t trying to convince you of anything. It just wants you to like it. It wants you to smile, nod in recognition, shed a tear or two and feel good about yourself for liking it. It’s an exemplar of American indie entertainment at its most canned and solipsistic.

This was the other film I was privileged to see during Sundance and it’s most likely gonna go down as one of my favorites of the year. Cha Cha Real Smooth has more of a personal connection to me with how it treats leaving home while you still have a younger sibling there. It really resonated with me and I’m not ashamed to say that the final scene of the film almost made me cry. It hit very close to home. The performances here are great. Major props to Cooper Raiff for Directing, Writing, and starring in this because the writing and his performance were fantastic. His direction was pretty good but the writing and acting outshined it. His character feels very realistic. He gets in over his head a lot but tries his best to make others feel happy and he usually succeeds at it. Dakota Johnson did a great job as well along with Vanessa Burghardt who plays her daughter. All of these characters that Raiff wrote are great. They feel personal and well thought out and play a major impact into the story. As you can tell, it was the characters and writing that really sold me for this film because those aspects genuinely are fantastic. The music and editing were good but really weren’t anything that special. I would highly recommend checking this film out whenever it hits theaters or streaming services if you want a more personal kind of story.

This is certainly the definition of a vanity project: Relative newcomer Cooper Raiff wrote/directed and stars in the leading role. He plays a somewhat aimless 22 year old, who befriends a single mom (Dakota Johnson) and her autistic daughter (Vanessa Burghardt, who is). Of course, their friendship tries to blossom into more. Raiff is affable and energetic, which translates into the mood and style of his direction as well. Johnson is warm and smiling, while Burghardt is gently sweet. Raiff's scenario is also abundant with clichés and his dialogue is seldom original. There is an earnest charm that may affect those looking for a sentimental coming-of-age semi-romance, so you could say that Raiff's vanity project wasn't all in vain.

I appreciate the sincerity even if I didn't really connect with it as a whole.

bad [ bad ] adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36. not good in any manner or degree.

Obscenely eager to endear, even as the camera never stops admiring the insufferably glib and wholly unbelievable protagonist, who also happens to be the writer, director and producer. The best you can say of this one is that it's all of a piece, performance, music, writing, camera, on the twee road to perdition. Sundance at its absolute worst.