As With Maturity, a Film With Many Levels

Despite something of a made-for-TV aura, the crowd-pleasing charm of “Cha Cha Real Smooth” ultimately wins the day, or at least the bottom line.Screening at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival in March ahead of a commercial release later this year, the film revolves around the romantic misadventures of a recent Tulane grad who inadvertently becomes a bar and bat mitzvah deejay after being cornered by a group of meddling mothers. In a prologue that uncannily brings to mind “Licorice Pizza,” the pre-teenager Andrew (Javien Mercado) instantly becomes smitten with an older bar mitzvah hostess and declares he’s in love. The story then leaps forward a decade. Andrew, now played by the film’s writer-director, Cooper Raiff, is heart-stricken as his girlfriend departs for Barcelona on a Fulbright scholarship. He takes up a job manning a hot dog stand at a New Jersey shopping mall food court in an attempt to save up enough money to join her. In the interim, he begrudgingly stays with his mother (Leslie Mann); stepdad, Greg (Brad Garrett); and kid brother, David (Evan Assante). While chaperoning David at a bar mitzvah, an older woman catches Andrew’s eye — as was foreshadowed in the prologue. Domino (Dakota Johnson) is already engaged, but that does not squelch Andrew’s romantic overtures. Her fiancée, Joseph (Raúl Castillo), is frequently away on business, and their relationship loosely mirrors that of Andrew’s mother and Greg in that both appear to be based on practical concerns of security and stability rather than such frivolities as love and romance. Thus, Andrew comes of age upon his realization that believing “love conquers all” is utterly naive. Much like Mr. Raiff’s onscreen persona, the film beams with earnestness and enthusiasm. He means well, but Mr. Raiff is 24 years old and the film suffers from a lack of depth, life experience, and wisdom. Many traits ascribed to the characters — Andrew’s drinking problem, his casual fling, his mother’s mental health problems — are screenwriting shorthand that never develops beyond labels. Most of these expository details aren’t reflected in the performances, because Mr. Raiff hasn’t given the cast much to work with. During one of the many bar and bat mitzvahs, Domino suffers a miscarriage in a restroom. As what should be a shattering scene unfolds, we are instead left with the impression that this is a mere minor inconvenience for her and fodder for Andrew to swoop in and save the day. Afterward Andrew just drives her home without even offering to take her to an emergency room. It’s difficult to find much tangible artistic merit in the film, either. All the bar and bat mitzvah scenes seem interchangeable, as if filmed on the exact same set. The hot dog stand sticks out among the nondescript locales only because there is little resemblance to real life. What’s redeeming about the film — and indeed what was appealing enough to earn it a 2022 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and a $15 million deal with Apple, the biggest signing of the fest — is that it ultimately resolves in the most adult and sensible way possible to mark Andrew’s entry into adulthood. It’s actually a sort of cynical outcome, but realistic. One can only hope that Mr. Raiff’s filmmaking will likewise reach another level of maturity.

As With Maturity, a Film With Many Levels

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