On the heels of their Best Picture-winning CODA, Apple TV+ is gearing up for the release of another major Sundance acquisition: Cooper Raiff’s sophomore feature Cha Cha Real Smooth, which they picked up for around $15 million out of the festival. Also starring Dakota Johnson, Evan Assante, Vanessa Burghardt, Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett, Raúl Castillo, and Odeya Rush, the film follows a recent college graduate who finds a job as a party hype man at local bar and bat mitzvahs and strikes up a connection with Johnson’s character, who is married. Ahead of the June 17 release, the first trailer has now arrived.
In his review of Cha Cha Real Smooth, Jake Kring-Schreifels said, “It’s not exactly cool to be the nice guy these days, but Cooper Raiff is making a good case for them again. In each of the 24-year-old’s first two movies, his sensible zoomer characters have the gift of being goofy, innocent, and naive. They wear their kind and confident hearts on their sleeves, even if they often breach the comfortable boundaries of social norms. Mostly they are empathetic, rid of the toxicity that makes vulnerable young men—and the movies they star in—sour and one-dimensional. That this young and perceptive writer-director is so emotionally honest only elevates the entirety of his humble, charming, crowd-pleasing work.”
See the trailer below.
Cha Cha Real Smooth opens on June 17 on Apple TV+ and in select theaters.