Last summer, a film that wowed Sundance before being flogged to Apple for a fortune arrived quietly on that streaming service to largely decent reviews. Despite the parallels, there seems little chance that Cooper Raiff’s lovely Cha Cha Real Smooth — Apple’s for $15 million at the snowy event — will follow Coda to the Academy Award for best picture. No offence should be taken. Stretching out leisurely across archetypal indie suburbia, the dramatic comedy takes a singular approach to its core relationship, toying with teary romance while sitting back from hackneyed tropes. Raiff is brave enough to not give us all we desire from the story. He accommodates a star in the ensemble cast without allowing her to unbalance the character dynamics. But the film is a tad too obtuse to capture the attention of awards voters. Oddball here wins out over mainstream.
The director plays Andrew, an underachiever living in a bland nowhere with his depressive mom (Leslie Mann), his sensitive young brother (Evan Assante) and their stoic, faintly boring stepdad (Brad Garrett). We learn early on that Andrew has long had issues with relationships when we see his teenage self making a pathetic play for a tolerant adult woman. Now he works in a fast-food joint while pining over lost causes. Hope of emotional escape comes when he spots Domino (Dakota Johnson), mother of autistic Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), at a bar mitzvah where he is working as “party starter”.
Prepare yourself for a shock. While you were sleeping, Dakota aged sufficiently to play “older woman” to a 24-year-old lead. Not much older, to be fair. She is not being nudged into premature Hollywood middle-age. But there is enough of a gap for Andrew to feel slightly overwhelmed by the developing closeness. Johnson’s status as star of the moment emphasises that separation, but she slips effortlessly into the mid-budgeted, occasionally scruffy ambience. Late in the film, Andrew wonders if she is “holding back a desire to be distant or holding back a desire to be close”. That sums up her effect perfectly. She reveals just enough inner life to intrigue, but nothing like enough for total transparency.
In contrast, Raiff makes something a little too sweet and ingenuous of Andrew. The film wants us to feel frustration at his wide-eyed stasis, but it probably would rather we didn’t wish to give him such a vigorous shake. That jolt eventually comes as the film confirms there is nothing wrong with settling for less than perfection. The journey to that realisation is funny, awkward, frustrating and utterly charming. But, no, Cha Cha Real Smooth isn’t winning best picture.
