Cooper Raiff is really very charming. To adults. And by adults I mean Jewish parents. Raiff’s Andrew is having a twentysomething early life crisis; a flailing relationship and failure to launch provide the setup for what looks like a standard slacker making good story. It’s not not a slacker making good story, but it’s not all that standard. Raiff’s breezy charisma and a twist on the relationship that helps him grow up turn Cha Cha Real Smooth into a real charmer.

Raiff is the primary reason to watch this, but not the only one. His star/writer/director follow-up to 2019’s S#!%house is a simply wonderful film about a mostly nice guy trying to figure out what happens next. As his stand-in, Andrew, graduates college, his girlfriend is going to Europe and he is going to live at home with mom (Leslie Mann), brother (Evan Assante), and stepdad-type (Brad Garrett). Thanks to his charm and ability to relate to essentially everybody but stepdad Greg, he accidentally falls into a gig as a party starter for bar/bas mitzvahs. As he does so, he meets single mom Domino (that name is really the only misstep in the script, but she’s played so well by Dakota Johnson that you can live with it) and her autistic daughter, Lola (the wonderful young Vanessa Burghardt). Over the course of the movie, Raiff falls for the very complicated Domino, strikes up an endearing friendship with Lola, helps his brother prepare for his first kiss, and does many other charming things. He also gets drunk on the job a couple of times and routinely lashes out at Greg for no good reason. So he’s got some other flaws along with his aimlessness. But, for the most part, you can’t help but like Andrew as he routinely says the right thing–with flair–in almost any situations (and immediately apologizes when he doesn’t because he is, at heart, the good guy).

Raiff’s charm–I mentioned that he’s charming, right?–makes Andrew that slacker-ish guy that you are really rooting for. The direction is solid without being showy. The acting seems pretty great, but maybe Raiff is just that guy playing himself. But its Raiff’s writing that’s the best part of the package. For a setup you’ve seen 100 times, Raiff’s spin on it feels fresh. The conversations he has with characters seems genuine, especially his interactions with Lola. Burghardt is actually autistic, and there isn’t a moment between her and Andrew that feels fake or forced. The main relationship in the movie, though, is that between Andrew and Domino. Johnson, like Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson before her, keeps moving past the goofy franchise that established her. proving her chops in prestige indie fare like Suspiria, The Peanut Butter Falcon, and The Lost Daughter. Her Domino is the most complex character here, a thirtysomething who was forced to grow up too early and thus never really figuring out who she is. She’s torn by the responsibilities of who she needs to be as a mother and as a fiancée to a man she’s not that into. Andrew allows her to feel something from her youth, but she knows that she can’t be that person. It’s a nicely written role, and Johnson does so well playing that tension between what is and what could have been, avoiding the melodrama that could easily accompany such a part.

Raiff has made a movie that all too easily could have been too cynical or too saccharine. But he manages to find the narrow lane between those two extremes. Cha Cha Real Smooth has great script, charming performances (last time, I promise), and a genuine sweetness that transcends the “finding yourself” genre while still being comfortably at home in it.

Cha Cha Real Smooth is streaming on Apple TV+.

(Photo Credit: Apple TV+)