Cha Cha Real Smooth - 2022
Updated: Oct 18, 2022
Cooper Raiff's second film, Cha Cha Real Smooth is a work that flirts with greatness and finds some phenomenal moments of higher connection, but ultimately does not quite escape the sophomore slump. The picture is, in fact, a kind of rare artifact - A story that is simultaneously too messy and too neat all at the same time.
There seems to be a rather unkind reading of this film (and Raiff's writing and characterization in it) which sees the protagonist as being just a bit TOO kind and perfect. For two films now he has given us this kind of "young adult searching for his bearings in life" presentation. A young man who wears his heart on his sleeve, strives to put his best foot forward, but can't seem to stop stepping in potholes. It's like a lovable loser, only not because his ugly cries scan like poetry and the hottest girl in town is somehow inexplicably all in on his wiles.
I suppose I can see how some would feel this way about his works, ie casting himself as the flawed hero of his own gallant tales. But I prefer a more honest reading of the man's intentions. I think Cooper just writes what he knows, and his pictures are like him, reflecting both the wisdom and the naivete that that entails. Whereas Shithouse just landed perfectly for me, I found the writing here to be far more messy. The dialogue often contains these starts and stops, long glances, and non sequiturs galore. At first I surmised that it was coming together into a beautiful messy whole that mirrored real life. But alas, it was just TOO glossy and tidy in its conclusions.
Even so, there is still much to praise. Isn't it finally high time that we begin, as a film community, to acknowledge the A-grade goods of one Dakota Johnson? This girl has simply got it all. Not only is she the quintessence of "sultry," and jawdroppingly beautiful to boot, but she has real chops. She gets inside of characters and lives there. She wears that persona on her face, saying a lot with a little (and believe me there are times when "a little" is what you get with this screenplay).
Moreover, her daughter Lola, played just captivatingly by Vanessa Burghardt, is another total winner. Her deadpan delivery and truths delivered with the sincerity of an atom bomb make her just about my favorite character I've encountered on screen all year. Cooper has done such a great job of writing an authentic-seeming individual who has autism and is therefore somewhat of a pariah among her peers. Say what you will about the efficacy of his pen this time around, Cha Cha is exceptionally well cast.
Beyond this, look there is a long history of this sort of tale. By that I mean older vixens who find a counterpart to their own internal ennui in a younger, more ingenuous boy. The example par excellence, of course, is The Graduate. This picture pales mightily in comparison to that masterwork, and Dakota's Domino is a younger, more insular "heroine." (She is fighting to climb towards the light, whereas Anne Bancroft is embracing the abyss). In any case, there are some antecedents for ladies connected with young, strapping lads who are kind and will just be there.
What ultimately takes Cha Cha down, however, is the way it all comes together. Messy all along, the film for some reason turns down Tidy Conclusion Boulevard in its waning moments. (He could have learned a few things from Nichols' masterpiece). Let me be clear - my issue is not with its warmth or dewy-eyed enthusiasm. Those are fantastic! No, it's the way the finished product is edited and sculpted.
I strongly disliked the final five to ten minutes of the picture, if I'm completely honest. The difference is that I view it as a young director with some real talent just losing his footing "coming home," rather than some inflated vanity project gone wrong. There are bigger swings this time around, and if anything I've only cemented this belief: Cooper Raiff has got the goods. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
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