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Charismatic Andrew, the center of writer, director, and actor Cooper Raiff’s second feature, is impossible not to like. As a bar mitzvah party-starter, aka “jig conductor,” he’s a 21st-century Music Man, a pied piper loved by all, except those prickish parents who don’t appreciate his bawdiness. He’s also mature enough, even at 22, to understand and develop a relationship with an autistic (albeit high-functioning) teenager, Lola.

It’s Lola’s mother, Domino (a gorgeous, irresistible Dakota Johnson, now 32), also fine in last year’s “The Lost Daughter”), who changes the arc of the traditional “immature man won’t commit to worthy woman who wants him” rom-com. Andrew has demonstrated his people skills and maturation potential and wants to commit; yet he is also fresh out of Tulane University (he wears the school’s sweatshirt), works part-time at the fast-food outlet “Meat Sticks,” and shares a bedroom at home with his pubescent brother (one of many extreme age differences). Domino understands what it really means to parent a child with needs. And Andrew is just too young. We know he’s too young as early as the opening scene before the credits, when, as a 10-year-old, he asks a teacher for a date. “Oh, honey,” she says, “I’m old.”

“Cha Cha Real Smooth” suffers from “telling” rather than “showing.” The showing it does do is of Andrew’s character, and that’s a fine show. Played by Raiff, Andrew is magnetic. His extroverted dancing, cajoling, and joy at being in the world are infectious. It’s Domino whose needs bring him, and the film, down to earth. We’re told she has periods of depression, that Lola is a burden she must bear stoically, that her fiancé Joseph (Raúl Castillo) is right for her. We are shown none of this.

The secondary characters are mostly caricatures used for Andrew’s punch lines or for schmaltzy asides. His stepdad Greg (Brad Garrett) is “an unhappy pharmaceutical sales rep” until he’s more than that. We’re told his mother (Leslie Mann) is bi-polar, and we’re told he’s had a rough childhood, until a late scene where he waxes eloquent about what a fantastic mother she has been and the perfect childhood he had (also told, not shown). Then there’s the sometimes-date Maya (Amara Pedroso), whom he seems to go to for sex when he can’t get it from Domino. 

Lola is the exception to the poorly-drawn secondary characters. In her first acting role, Vanessa Burghardt, who describes herself as “on the spectrum,” gives a sensitive portrayal of an autistic teen, one who excels at number and word games, her headphones on, and who speaks in complete sentences without contractions.

There’s a powerful love story here, even if an improbable one given the age differences. “You need to do your 20s,” the pragmatist, Domino, wisely tells the romantic, Andrew. Many will find this slow-moving, feel-good movie delightful family fare, a few X-rated words notwithstanding.

The upending of the usual rom-com arc, decent acting, and a script with some clever writing make one want to cheer a film that teeters on the edge of treacle. Some critics conclude it stops short of soap opera and find it charming (it won the U.S. Dramatic Film Audience Award at Sundance and appeared on the “best of 2022” lists of many Western New York Film Critics Association members ). Others have found it slips into exaggerated melodrama and pronounce “Cha Cha Real Slow” simply another sophomoric failure; Manohla Dargis of the New York Times gave it 20 out of 100.  2 Film Critics “teeters” toward the latter camp. Maybe 50. 

Starring: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Vanessa Burghardt, Brad Garrett, Leslie Mann, Raúl Castillo, Evan Assante

Other Awards: 2 wins, including Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic Film, at the Sundance Film Festival, and 2 other nominations.

Availability: Streaming on Apple TV; for future expanded availability, see JustWatch here.

Lead image: Andrew (Cooper Raiff), left, is hardly the model of maturity. At 22, he lives at home with his much younger brother David (Evan Assante), and wears the vest of the fast-food outlet he works for–“Meat Sticks.”

See all Five Cent Cine reviews by 2 Film Critics

William Graebner is Emeritus Professor of History, State University of New York, Fredonia, where he taught courses on film and American culture. He is the author or co-author of 11 books and more than 50 scholarly articles, including essays on “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” and zombie films as they relate to the Holocaust. Dianne Bennett, the first woman to head a large U.S. law firm, is a retired U.S. tax lawyer. Dianne and Bill were early and passionate attendees at the Toronto Film Festival, and today enjoy the film scenes of Los Angeles, Rome, London, and Buffalo, New York. They began reviewing films for the Rome-based website “TheAmerican/inItalia” in 2016, have maintained a blog on Rome for a decade, and published two alternative guidebooks to the Eternal City. They still can’t resist going to the movies, not to mention the ensuing discussions, sometimes heated, over a bottle of Arneis at the nearest wine bar. ​And that's just the beginning of our reviewing process. For one or two hours we discuss the film, as one of us takes notes. The notetaker transcribes the notes and prints two copies. Dianne or Bill (usually depending on who had the most compelling understanding of the film, or who was most taken with it) writes the first draft of the review--supposedly taking into account the views of the other--which is followed by 3, 4, or even 7 more drafts. At some point, sometimes days later, when we're both comfortable with the result (or accepting of it, anyway), it's done. https://www.2filmcritics.com

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