Critic Reviews

With only two films, Raiff has proven himself to be one of the most exciting filmmakers today, telling stories that are emotionally honest and lived in, without any pretensions and with an unabashed tenderness.

Dismiss “Cha Cha” as yet another heartwarming comedy at your peril because every single person in it has layers upon layers of complexity.

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.

It’s hard to find movies—no matter their scope—that grasp and depict the human experience with the kind of honesty and dexterity Raiff has committed to the screen so far.

Cha Cha Real Smooth has an unforced charm and lack of guile that’s refreshing and stops just short of being precious and ingratiating.

Avoiding the sophomore slump, Raiff’s delightfully sigh-worthy Cha Char Real Smooth is the type of sincere enterprise that could easily be spoiled with hackneyed platitudes or simplistically rose-colored plot points, yet here it sings with a wondrous candor and an unforced dramatic rhythm that turns it mightily irresistible.

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.

Cooper Raiff dances around complex emotions with the smoothest of steps in Cha Cha Real Smooth, sliding into the definition of feel-good filmmaking.

Cha Cha Real Smooth is a series of reflections on life.

If Raiff's first film was about two neurotic characters learning to get out of their own heads, then Cha Cha Real Smooth is a tenderly bittersweet story about a couple learning to use theirs.