David Farnor | On 18, Jun 2022

Director: Cooper Raiff
Cast: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Vanessa Burghardt, Evan Assante, Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett, Raúl Castillo
Certificate: 15

“For the rest of my life, everything is going to be defined by them. But you? You only have you.” That’s Domino (Dakota Johnson) speaking to Andrew (Cooper Raiff) in Sundance award-winner Cha Cha Real Smooth. She’s talking about her complicated family situation in comparison to his freewheeling single life in one of the best scenes in the film. The only problem is that we don’t get the chance to delve into the messiness of her life in much detail. Because after making his debut with Freshman Year, an indie comedy about a goofy, borderline annoying young man we’re meant to feel sympathy for, 25-year-old writer-direct Raiff returns for his sophomore film, an indie comedy about a goofy, borderline annoying young man we’re meant to feel sympathy for.

We pick things up as Andrew goes back home after university to live with his mum (Leslie Mann) and stepdad (Brad Garrett), while sharing a bedroom with his younger brother (Evan Assante). Manning the tills in a fast food joint – Meat Sticks – by day, he finds his nights unexpectedly opening up a new career path: becoming a professional part-starter, working the room and encouraging people to get up on the dance floor at bar mitzvahs and other celebrations. It’s while doing this that he crosses paths with Domino, and her daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), who has autism.

The attraction between Andrew and Domino is swift and intense, with Andrew falling head over heels. To her, he represents a less complicated reminder of simpler possibilities – with her fiance, Joseph (Raúl Castillo), away in Chicago on work, the potential for a friendly, warm companion has clear appeal. The paradox of the film is that we don’t get much of a reason for Andrew to be so drawn to her, and yet his perspective is the one the story adamantly adopts.

Dakota Johnson does a lot with deceptively little, imbuing Domino with nuance and depth beyond her explicit dialogue that spells out her feelings frankly. And Cooper Raiff has an amiable charm that immediately sells both Andrew’s ability to get a party started and his shambling charisma when among acquaintances. They’re supported superbly by Vanessa Burghardt, an actor on the autism spectrum, who grounds what might have been an overly twee tale in something compelling and believably awkward.

Raiff deserves credit for getting these performances out of his ensemble, helping the comedy to push into dramatic territory that’s spikier than its soft-edged soundtrack and visuals suggest. But the script doesn’t push far enough, stopping short of interrogating Andrew’s behaviour or fully grasping the mature dilemmas facing the older Domino. One confrontation with Joseph fails to ring true while Andrew’s own rude behaviour towards his own family is treated as acceptable. The result is a collection of often-warm and gently comforting scenes, but the film’s too caught up in Andrew’s role as the protagonist to become anything more substantial. It’s a rich premise, but with the wrong lead character.

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