Cha Cha Real Smooth is a 2022 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cooper Raiff.
Raiff stars as recent Tulane graduate Andrew, who's moved back home to Livingston, New Jersey and is unsure of his path in life. His girlfriend Maya (Amara Pedroso Saquel) has left him to finish her Fulbright study in Barcelona. While chaperoning his younger brother David (Evan Assante) to his high school friend Macy (Odeya Rush)'s sister's bat mitzvah, he is offered a job as a party starter and befriends young mother Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter Lola (Vanessa Burghardt) along the way.
Raiff's second feature effort, it premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award before being picked up and distributed by Apple TV+ that June.
Cha Cha Real Smooth provides examples of:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Domino kisses Andrew after her miscarriage while her fiancé is out of town for work, though he rejects her, not wanting to go there while she's in a vulnerable state and uncertain of what she wants.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The other parents at school shun Domino as they assume she sleeps around.
- Blithe Spirit: Andrew has a certain charisma and enthusiasm, which helps get him hired as bar/bat mitzvah party starter and later to take care of Lola. He proves to be a positive force in her life, paying attention to her wants and interests and allowing her to lead the way. Lola decides she likes having him around because he treats her like a person and not a baby.
- Broken Bird: Domino has "always" had depression, thinks she's a bad person, is a social pariah among other parents, and feels she lost out on life due to marrying and divorcing so young. Despite that, she sees Lola as the good in her life, and claims that raising her made her better. She ultimately rejects Andrew so he can have the 20s she never got to, and so she can have a stable marriage.
- Bullying the Disabled: Lola gets bullied by the boys in her grade for having autism and being held back.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Andrew and Macy, who knew each other in high school. Their relationship when they reconnect after college starts off as Friends with Benefits.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Andrew does not end up with Domino, nor does he follow Maya to Barcelona like he planned to.
- Fatal Flaw: Andrew's immaturity.Andrew: I'm just a dumb kid.
- Good Stepfather: Andrew and David aren't very fond of Greg at first, but they come around to him, realising he's a good guy who makes their mother happy and supports her through her struggles with bipolar disorder.
- Horrible Judge of Character: In addition to coming around to his stepfather, Andrew realizes Joseph is far more patient, understanding, and caring than he thought he was, having assumed the worst in him and gotten defensive.
- He also misreads Domino's intentions — she does want to marry Joseph because she needs that stability, and is only having doubts and commitment issues because her first husband left her.
- Idealist vs. Pragmatist: Andrew is the aimless idealist to Domino's jaded pragmatist.
- Kids Are Cruel: Some of the kids in Lola's class bully her for being autistic and older than what they are. In particular, there's one time at a party late in the film where some kids steal her headphones and new rubiks cube she got from Andrew.
- Kitschy Local Commercial: The commercial Andrew makes to promote himself as the "Jig Conductor" features wooden acting from David, a poor font used for the text, and is shot in the rooms of their home.
- Not in Front of the Kid: Stepdad Greg disapproves of Andrew swearing in front of his younger brother David. This doesn't seem to stop him though.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Andrew does this a few times, saying things he doesn't mean before immediately taking them back.
- Precocious Crush: Andrew had a crush on a party entertainer when he was 12, which is implied to foreshadow his future.
- Sucks at Dancing: Watching one person dance alone is the reason Andrew reaches out to David's friends and other party guests to get them on the dance floor.
- Teen Pregnancy: Domino is in her early 30s with a teen daughter (Lola is in the same grade as David, but a few years older from having been held back).
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Andrew tries to stand up to a Bratty Half-Pint who was picking on Lola, but the parents won't hear it and instead act like he was the one being antagonistic, getting him kicked out.
