[FILM]
CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH
Distinctly fewer sequins in this Cha Cha than we get on Strictly.
★★★★ OUT 17 JUNE (APPLE TV+)
CERT TBC / 107 MINS
DIRECTOR Cooper Raiff
CAST Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett, Raúl Castillo, Vanessa Burghardt
PLOT Andrew (Raiff) has returned home after graduating from college. In a bid to find purpose, he takes up a regular job at Bar Mitzvahs, through which he sparks a friendship with Domino (Johnson) and her autistic daughter Lola (Burghardt).
YOU DON’T HAVE to be familiar with America’s Bar Mitzvah party industry to know the moves to its dancefloor staple ‘Cha Cha Slide’. You slide to the left, then the right, do a criss-cross with your feet, and the rest goes from there. The same can be said for the film that references that song ’s lyrics, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Cooper Raiff ’s Sundance-winning sophomore indie, which he also wrote and stars in. Bat and Bar Mitzvahs frequently provide the film’s stage — think kippahs, cake, and throngs of awkward 12-yearolds shuffling along to trap music — but at its heart, the film is a character study of an aimless yet affable young man coasting, The Graduatestyle, through post-academic life.