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    Movie Review

    Cha Cha Real Smooth from Apple TV+ slides right into your heart

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 17, 2022 | 9:10 am
    Cooper Raiff and Dakota Johnson in Cha Cha Real Smooth.play icon
    Cooper Raiff and Dakota Johnson in Cha Cha Real Smooth.
    Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

    Coming-of-age stories tend to focus on teenagers, as the high school years and puberty and everything else related to that time can contain massive amounts of change. But what happens after someone graduates from college can be just as confusing, as you’re no longer considered a kid but you’re also not fully an adult.

     

    Writer/director/actor/Dallas native Cooper Raiff expertly explores that fraught time period in his sophomore film, Cha Cha Real Smooth. Raiff plays Andrew, a 22-year-old college graduate without a plan forced to move back home with his mom (Leslie Mann), stepfather Greg (Brad Garrett), and younger brother David (Evan Assante), making a little bit of money working at a cheap mall food chain called Meat Sticks.

     

    While accompanying David to a friend’s bat mitzvah, Andrew becomes an impromptu party starter, trying to liven things up. He does such a good job that he’s recruited by other Jewish mothers to actually do the job at future parties. He’s more than happy to do so, especially as Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her autistic daughter Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), with whom he hits it off at that first bat mitzvah, are regular attendees at the celebrations.

     

    If it were like a lot of other movies, Cha Cha Real Smooth would push hard on the will they/won’t they question between Andrew and Domino. But the 25-year-old Raiff has a subtlety to his filmmaking that belies his young age. He takes his time setting up the story, establishing Andrew’s so-nice-it-hurts personality and the barely-contained depressive demeanor of Domino. Every time they get together is a small building block, adding up to something completely satisfying.

     

    And while the bond between Andrew and Domino is immediate and obvious, Raiff layers on multiple other elements to flesh out both characters. Andrew is at ease as both a party starter and when helping his brother plan his first kiss or Lola come out of her shell, but he also has an underlying hostility for his stepfather and bullies at the parties. Domino has experienced a lot at a relatively young age, and her search for answers is an ongoing one that just happens to rope in Andrew.

     

    While there’s nothing overly complicated about the story, it’s difficult to overstate how impressive Raiff’s filmmaking is. At a time in life when most aspiring filmmakers are making low-budget short films, Raiff demonstrates a sharp focus to his storytelling. There is never a moment when he fails to connect the dots between scenes, loses the emotion due to poor editing, or falls prey to easy plot mechanisms. The film may seem simple on the surface, but it’s far from it.

     

    Raiff as an actor is interesting to watch. He has a habit of speaking with his teeth showing the majority of the time, like he’s in a constant half-smile. In addition to his upbeat personality, this visual makes him highly watchable. Johnson makes for a nice scene partner for him, as she’s noticeably restrained yet still compelling. Other standouts include Mann and, making her movie debut, Burghardt.

     

    There’s an ache to the story of Cha Cha Real Smooth that’s highly relatable for anyone who struggled to find their way in the world in their twenties. In the able hands of a filmmaker like Raiff, the movie is one that opens and breaks your heart in equal measures.

     

    ---

     

    Cha Cha Real Smooth is playing in select theaters and on Apple TV+.

    Leslie Mann, Cooper Raiff, and Brad Garrett in Cha Cha Real Smooth.

    Leslie Mann, Cooper Raiff, and Brad Garrett in Cha Cha Real Smooth
      
    Photo courtesy of Apple TV+
    Leslie Mann, Cooper Raiff, and Brad Garrett in Cha Cha Real Smooth.
    movies
    news/entertainment

    This Week's Hot Headlines

    Brooklyn-based Italian ice shop debuts in Dallas and more top stories

    CultureMap Staff
    Jul 12, 2025 | 10:00 am
    Uncle Louie G's
    scontent-dfw5-3.xx.fbcdn.net
    Uncle Louie G's

    Editor's note: The top Dallas news of the week is brimming with restaurant openings, from ice cream to Tex-Mex to burgers and more. Get the scoop on our five most popular stories below, then head to our event planner to find the best things to do this weekend.

    1. Brooklyn Italian ice & ice cream shop makes Texas debut in North Dallas. A small, artisan frozen dessert shop from Brooklyn has made its Texas debut. Called Uncle Louie G's Italian Ice & Ice Cream, it's now open at 7522 Campbell Rd. #115 in Dallas, where it's scooping up Italian ice, ice cream, and related frozen desserts with a real authentic East Coast vibe.

    2. New Dallas Tex-Mex Texano Cocina opens in former El Fenix space. The name may change but the Tex-Mex goes on. A new concept called Texano Cocina has opened at 5622 Lemmon Ave., taking over the space that was most famously El Fenix, but has seen a series of Tex-Mex concepts open and close in recent years.

    3. Buzzy burger joint with Michelin ties to open in Uptown Dallas. An ultra-buzzy burger joint is opening in Uptown Dallas. Called NADC Burger, it's a chef-driven cheeseburger concept serving Wagyu burgers that will open at 2908 McKinney Ave., in the former Playground Bar, which closed in 2024.

     NADC Burger NADC Burger is coming to Uptown.  Courtesy of NADC Burger  

    4. Italian restaurant Sicilian Butcher preps meatballs for North Dallas. The meatballs are about to land. The Sicilian Butcher, the modern-casual restaurant known for meatballs, house-made pastas, and butchery-inspired Italian fare, has circled a date for the opening of its Addison-adjacent location.

    5. Dudley's Sports Grill to open on Dallas' hot-hot Henderson Avenue. A new sports bar is joining the mix on Dallas' hot-hot Henderson Avenue. Called Dudley’s Sports Grill, it'll open at 2927 N. Henderson Ave., in the space previously occupied by Smithy, a gastropub that closed in June after seven years.

    top storiesopeningstex-mexice creamburgersitalianuptownnorth dallashot-headlines
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