Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    Momo and Okarun share a close moment in Dandadan

    Momo And Okarun: The Gold Standard For Shonen Romance

    07/03/2025
    Ironheart Episodes 4 6 But Why Tho 1

    ‘Ironheart’ Explained: Explore MCU’s Bold New Chapter

    07/01/2025
    Buck in 9-1-1

    ‘9-1-1’ Has To Let Buck Say Bisexual

    06/29/2025
    Nintendo Welcome Tour promotional image of the maraca mini-game

    The One “Game” That Justifies The Nintendo Switch 2 Purchase

    06/25/2025
    Destiel Confession in Supernatural - Castiel (Misha Collins) and Dean (Jensen Ackles)

    The Destiel Confession: The Lasting Importance Of Supernatural’s Greatest Ship

    06/22/2025
  • Squid Game
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Switch 2 Games
  • Summer Game Fest
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » REVIEW: Everybody Clap Your Hands for ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

REVIEW: Everybody Clap Your Hands for ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

Jason FlattBy Jason Flatt06/09/20228 Mins Read
Cha Cha Real Smooth - But Why Tho
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Cha Cha Real Smooth - But Why Tho

There’s always a conversation every b’nai mitzvah kid has at some point. The b’nai mitzvah is a Jewish rite of passage; when a Jewish kid turns 13, they officially become Jewish adults for all intents and purposes. But the conversation goes: are you really an adult just because you suddenly turn a certain age and everyone throws you a party? Cha Cha Real Smooth is an Apple TV+ Original written and directed by Cooper Raiff, co-starring him and Dakota Johnson, who also co-produced. Andrew (Raiff) is 22 and just graduated college. But like his bar mitzvah-aged brother must too ponder, is Andrew really suddenly an adult just because he has a diploma and a job?

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

This movie is so many things at once. Most importantly, it’s a coming-of-age story. But uniquely, it’s not about a kid coming out of teenagedom or a teen coming of adulthood. It’s an adult coming of adulthood. And it’s beautiful. Andrew is living with his mom, his step-dad, and his brother in Livingston, New Jersey, after a tenure at Tulane. He’s muddling through old high school relationships and has no clue what to do with his life as he works a miserable job at a local mall. He’s also heartbroken after his college girlfriend left for Barcelona on a Fullbright and left him behind with barely a thought.

He is, at first, a quintessential 22-year-old. Though Raiff looks nothing like that age, he completely acts and speaks like it in a really funny and well-scripted way. It’s very Zillenial in that he’s old enough to have the attitude about work as essential that mires Millenials but is young enough to at least being self-aware about it like a Zoomer. He also carries about a willingness to opine after an older woman in a way that feels kind of 2000sish while having the modern sensibility to value enthusiastic consent above all.

He’s curt in a way that only a recent college grad used to partying every day would be, and he says incredibly awkward things all of the time. But he’s also, quite possibly, one of the nicest and most genuine people in the world. Maybe a little too much; he gives of himself too hard, too fast without thinking of himself. He’s kind of corny, and his musings on true love are candy-sweet. But truly, he is one of the most endearing leading male characters I have seen of late, and you can tell that it’s straight from Raiff’s heart.

This becomes apparent about him almost immediately while accompanying his brother David (Evan Assante) to one of a string of b’nai mitzvah parties. Dancing at these parties was formative in Andrew’s life, and when nobody else had fun at this one, he instantly sprang into action as the party’s pro bono party starter. Pro bono soon turns to professional as the other parents notice, and Andrew finds a true knack and joy in getting kids to have fun. Especially Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), an autistic teen (played by an autistic actress native to that very part of New Jersey) with whose mother Domino (Dakota Johnson), Andrew becomes immediately infatuated.

It has to be made clear that as the relationship between Andrew and Domino progresses, so too does that of Andrew and Lola. Lola is never treated as anything other than a fully-fledged character unto herself that Andrew genuinely enjoys spending time with as he becomes her babysitter of choice, regardless of his intentions with her mother. I am, however, somewhat concerned that perhaps her character was boiled down too heavily to fulfill the most recognizable stereotypes of an autistic teen. But she acts so well, and jokes are only ever made at Andrew’s expense for being dense, never hers for being autistic.

Of course, that relationship between Andrew and Domino is the crux of it all. It’s deep, complex, and incredibly well-acted by both parties in ways that constantly moved me, and for different reasons each time. I cannot exact my praises upon how this story was written with such care without spoiling some of the moments that made it so emotional. But truly, to watch a young twenty-something-year-old get the opportunity to come of age on screen was impactful.

In large part, because I am, in many ways, that twenty-something-year-old who had grand plans for a future with somebody upon graduating college only to have them foiled, winding up back in my parents’ home in New Jersey with my youngest brother, with no idea for the future besides “work at some good non-profit” as Andrew puts it. My trajectory from there and my relationships around me certainly were different from Andrew’s, but the general idea was eerily the same. And all the more so the calling that we both found.

Where Andrew became deeply fulfilled by the joy he could bring kids and the relationships he could build with them—again, in ways that were always written with such care to be genuine and reciprocal and never transactional or weird—I, too, realized that my greatest joys since college have come when I stop trying to find the perfect path forward and the perfect people to be in relationship to and give of myself to others, especially kids. I don’t know how affecting the story, and Andrew’s character would have been had I not seen myself so deeply in him, but that Raiff so clearly put his whole self into this story, and this character left me utterly compelled and very emotional by the end.

Especially because the story isn’t just about Andrew alone. It’s about Domino too, and the self-discovery and coming of her own age that she enjoys. The fulfillment she seeks is the complete opposite of Andrew’s and is just as valid and wonderful. It’s a movie, in the end, that is striking in its simple, genuine nature. Sure, its characters are somewhat exaggerated, especially Andrew’s mother (Leslie Mann) and step-father (Brad Garrett), but exaggeration often helps make points more transparent.

The absolute only thing keeping this movie back from perfection is the clear lack of Jewish consultation it received. I’ve worked at synagogues in the towns where Cha Cha Real Smooth takes place. First of all, no b’nai mitzvah party would ever be thrown in that relatively wealthy area just outside of New York City that didn’t have a whole cadre of party starters, DJs, and dancers hired nine months in advance. It’s an area where vanity is often a massive part of these parties, and they are gigantic expensive affairs. While I am sure the movie’s low budget was prohibitive, the decor in the many b’nai mitzvah parties shown were far below the most basic expectations I would have of a party in Livingston, NJ.

Lastly, and perhaps most egregiously, Cha Cha Real Smooth occurs during the summer. A poster at one party fairly early on indicates the party was taking place in mid-August. There has never been a b’nai mitzvah party in the modern history of such affairs held in the middle of August for any reason. Let alone a string of seven of them in a row. It’s a continuity weirdness that would place the end of the film probably farther into September than would even make sense, given when school begins in New Jersey.

But quite literally, any Jewish reader of this script should likely have caught the total infeasibility of its timing. Its two lead actors are not Jewish, something remarked upon comedically at one point but in a way where you are only in on the joke if you didn’t, understandably, assume that Raiff was Jewish.

Plenty of non-Jews go to and work at b’nai mitzvah parties. The whole set of characters could be not Jewish, and it wouldn’t matter at all. It’s just somewhat frustrating that a story centered around a Jewish religious/cultural event has such glaring gaps in its basic understanding of the community it’s portraying.

Nonetheless, Cha Cha Real Smooth is an easy contender for one of my favorite movies of the year so far. It’s so genuine and emotional with two magnificent lead characters who go through painfully but gloriously relatable comings of age. It’s really a special movie. Regardless of your background or your experience, you will absolutely love Andrew’s deep kindness, his cathartic journey, and the way the movie treats all of its characters with such care.

Cha Cha Real Smooth is streaming on Apple TV+ and playing in select theaters on June 17th.

Cha Cha Real Smooth
  • 9.5/10
    Rating - 9.5/10
9.5/10

TL;DR

Cha Cha Real Smooth is an easy contender for one of my favorite movies of the year so far. It’s so genuine and emotional with two magnificent lead characters who go through painfully but gloriously relatable comings of age.

  • Buy Your Tickets Now with our Affiliate Link

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleADVANCED REVIEW: ‘Summertime Rendering,’ Volume 1
Next Article REVIEW: ‘Young Justice: Phantoms,’ Episode 26 – “Death and Rebirth”
Jason Flatt
  • X (Twitter)

Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He's usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp.

Related Posts

The Old Guard 2
5.5

REVIEW: ‘The Old Guard 2’ Is Distracted And Half-Baked

07/02/2025
Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey in Jurassic World: Rebirth
5.5

REVIEW: ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ Is Best When Nobody Is Talking

06/30/2025
MEGAN 2.0 promotional image
7.0

REVIEW: ‘M3GAN 2.0’ Puts Action First

06/29/2025
F1 (2025) promotional key art
8.0

REVIEW: ‘F1’ Is A High-Octane Blockbuster

06/24/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Promotional image form Netflix
9.0

REVIEW: ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Brings Beautiful Animation And An Even Better Message

06/20/2025
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
8.5

REVIEW: ’28 Years Later’ Is How Franchises Should Return

06/18/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Taecyeon and Seohyun in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 7-8
7.5
TV

REVIEW: ‘The First Night With The Duke’ Episodes 7-8

By Sarah Musnicky07/03/2025

The First Night With The Duke Episodes 7-8 spends welcome time in pre-domestic bliss before new developments stir up trouble.

Together (2025) still from Sundance
8.0
Film

REVIEW: Have A Grossly Good Time ‘Together’

By Kate Sánchez01/27/2025Updated:07/04/2025

Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s Together (2025) is disgustingly funny, genuinely ugly, and just a good time at the movies.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 Alcatraz
9.0
PS5

REVIEW: ‘Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4’ Gives Old Games New Life

By Kyle Foley07/07/2025

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 is another example of how to breathe new life into a classic without losing touch of what makes the originals great.

Black Women Anime — But Why Tho (9) BWT Recommends

10 Black Women in Anime That Made Me Feel Seen

By LaNeysha Campbell11/11/2023Updated:12/03/2024

Black women are some of anime’s most iconic characters, and that has a big impact on Black anime fans. Here are some of our favorites.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here