Bailando por la vida

This is the sweetest, freshest, most genuinely heartfelt movie that I've seen in ages.

The script is thoroughly original, warm and witty, and the story unfolds without a false moment or even a whiff of predictably. The direction is sensitive and assured, and the leading man is endearingly winning.

It blows my mind that all of these are the work of the same person: the 25-year-old Cooper Raiff.

If you are reading this, Mr. Raiff, bravo and congratulations! Whoever funded this film needs to give him more money to make more films.

I wasn't expecting anything when I watched this movie but turns out I just got a big warm hug from it. Cha Cha Real Smooth is the pure heartfelt, sincere, and heartwarming I have ever felt from watching a movie this year. It's a bittersweet coming-of-age movie about a 22-year-old Andrew (Cooper Raiff), fresh out of college and stuck at his home without a clear path forward, he begins working as a party starter where he strikes up a friendship with a young mom (Dakota Johnson) and her teenage daughter.

You will never walk out the same after watching this movie and that's what I liked about it. Cooper Raiff is such a talented and gifted director, what makes him different from most of the directors is how he is genuinely capable of being related to the audience on a personal level. He is engaging not only how the way he directed it but also in how he writes it, and to add, played the character. The story is what I needed right now, the dialogues are just simply beautiful and touching. (Mind me, I also just got fresh out from the college lol)

Dakota Johnson's performance as a supporting actress is breathtaking and their chemistry is absolutely striking. I almost feel like the entire time of the movie they just let the eyes do the speaking, and it's working. My memories aren't going anywhere, especially for this movie. I can't wait to see more of Cooper Raiff's work in the future. Definitely a must-see.

This is a very heartwarming film. Cooper Raiff was very charming as the lead, and he literally carried this whole movie on his back. I was surprised to find out he was the director, producer, and editor in addition to being the lead actor. I also love Dakota Johnson's hot streak of delivering great back to back performances in The Lost Daughter and Cha Cha Real Smooth. This is currently my favorite movie of 2022.

There is a good bit of sarcastic comedy and wittiness. Honestly starts out a little clunky but I think it's intentional. Great story well acted in unique style by the lead. It's always fun to see a film truly evolve as the characters do and I think that's what you get here as the main actor is also the director and writer. Just a good movie that touches each emotion sometimes in unique and engaging ways.

This was the other film I was privileged to see during Sundance and it's most likely gonna go down as one of my favorites of the year. Cha Cha Real Smooth has more of a personal connection to me with how it treats leaving home while you still have a younger sibling there. It really resonated with me and I'm not ashamed to say that the final scene of the film almost made me cry. It hit very close to home. The performances here are great. Major props to Cooper Raiff for Directing, Writing, and starring in this because the writing and his performance were fantastic. His direction was pretty good but the writing and acting outshined it. His character feels very realistic. He gets in over his head a lot but tries his best to make others feel happy and he usually succeeds at it. Dakota Johnson did a great job as well along with Vanessa Burghardt who plays her daughter. All of these characters that Raiff wrote are great. They feel personal and well thought out and play a major impact into the story. As you can tell, it was the characters and writing that really sold me for this film because those aspects genuinely are fantastic. The music and editing were good but really weren't anything that special. I would highly recommend checking this film out whenever it hits theaters or streaming services if you want a more personal kind of story.