I love watching a movie where I know literally nothing about it. Despite my uninformed experience, I was expecting this to be a hard drama based on nothing but my own made up preconceptions; so when it reared its head as a romantic comedy, I was taken aback. However, that initial surprise transformed into pure joy, as this movie took me on a truly unexpected emotional rollercoaster.
SYNOPSIS: Fresh out of college and stuck at his New Jersey home without a clear path forward, 22-year-old Andrew begins working as a party starter for bar/bat mitzvahs—where he strikes up a unique friendship with a young mom and her teenage daughter.
I love a good rom-com, there’s nothing better than a heartwarming story that ends just the way you want it to, and is easily palatable through and through. What’s surprising to me about Cha Cha Slide is how much it dips into the romantic comedy genre, without being similar to any rom-com I’ve ever seen. It has the tropes, and it has the structure, but it’s more concerned with telling a well-rounded story than just being cute.
Cooper Raiff is both behind and infront of the camera here, and for the most part I think it works. He’s a talented actor that brings a lot of his own personal nuances to his character, and I really enjoyed him. There were times, however, where I questioned his chemistry with Dakota Johnson. I didn’t know If I was 100% buying her characters interest in him, which made their romance start out a bit wobbly, but it was something I definitely got used to.
Raiff’s character is characterized by the occupation he falls into as a “party starter”. This is both an occupation and a title for the way he behaves in the movie, always loud, always getting people up and moving; and they way the integrated this into the story was very clever. His character is put at odds with others because of his highflying attitude, which makes for some very interesting character development and the perfect protagonist for a coming-of-age story such as this.
The more the film progressed, the more I found myself engaged with the story. As it progresses, you start to see the different themes present themselves in very clever ways, and it creates the kind of world that you never want to leave. It’s filled with warmth and whole-heartedness, and you can tell that this project was made out of pure love and nothing else.
There were times where Raiff’s humor came on a little too strong for my taste, and the tone of certain scenes felt slightly adolescent adjacent to some of the movies deeper moments, but it never took me out of the experience. The soundtrack was also wonderful and enhanced a lot of scenes in the film, especially the heartbreaking third act.
Cha Cha Real Smooth is such an enjoyable, emotional watch that just kept improving and growing as the runtime went on. It has very sweet and memorable moments and characters, and everything that you might want from a typical romantic comedy; but, at the same time, it’s so much more than that under the surface!
8/10
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