Apple TV+: ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth,’ starring Dakota Johnson, is the year’s best comedy

Following its acclaimed, Audience Award-winning debut at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, Apple Original film “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” starring Dakota Johnson and Cooper Raiff is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Fresh out of college and without a clear life path going forward, 22-year-old Andrew is stuck back at home with his family in New Jersey. But if there’s one thing that belongs on his nonexistent résumé, it’s how to get a party started, which lands him the perfect job of motivational dancing at the bar and bat mitzvahs for his younger brother’s classmates. When Andrew befriends a local mom, Domino, and her daughter, Lola, he finally discovers a future he wants — even if it might not be his own. Cooper Raiff writes, directs and stars alongside Dakota Johnson, Brad Garrett, Leslie Mann, and newcomers Vanessa Burghardt and Evan Assante.

Johnny Oleksinski for The New York Post:

Cooper Raiff is the fresh comedic talent we’ve been waiting for.

A new one shows up on screen every few years — a modern guy or girl next door like Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Emma Stone and Adam Sandler — with appeal so broad and a personality so genuine we immediately crave to see them in something else. Or to, you know, go bowling with them.

Minutes into the blissful “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” the best comedy of the year so far, it’s obvious that Raiff is that brand of powerhouse.

Only his second feature, “Cha Cha” is line-dancing all the way to the bank. It was picked up at Sundance by AppleTV+ for $15 million in January, and like 2020’s big Sundance seller “Palm Springs,” everybody will be watching — and adoring — it…

Dakota Johnson gets better and better the longer she is freed from the oppressive chains of “Fifty Shades.” With great tenderness, the actress summons a person, a version of which we’ve all known, who is far too cool for the life she’s leading…

As DJ Casper says in “Cha Cha Slide,” “Everybody clap your hands.”

MacDailyNews Take: Yet another winner for Apple TV+ and its rapidly growing library of quality films and television series!

MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.

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