There are very few movies I don’t like. It is somewhat of a common occurrence that I will look up a rotten tomatoes review and be shocked by both the critic and audience scores. I have fallen for many a rom com only to find out later the existence of a common consensus of its cliche and tacky nature. I had no idea the British public didn’t like season three of Ted Lasso. I thought it was lovely. I think this is one of my favorite qualities about myself. I romanticize most things. A troubling and beautiful trait I think. Film, literature, poetry; it's all just romance right? None of this has much to do with Cha Cha Real Smooth, but seeing as this is my first review, I felt it only fair to notify any reader of the inherent bias that will assuredly come with my reviews.
It’s always a shock to the senses when you watch or read something that frays from logical narrative structure or character tropes. I remember sitting in the theatre for the fault in the stars and just thinking “he fucking dies?” I didn’t like that too much at the time. When I was really little I would always get sad when one of the storm troopers died in star wars (when they were good guys). In Cha Cha Real Smooth there wasn’t a classic romantic sequence or what felt like any real massive parabolic conclusion. Instead, there seemed to be a few smaller nuanced takeaways. While I almost felt like the ending was missing something, I think that was the point. A few small lessons that resolve the smaller scoped issues of the movie, making it more impactful, in my opinion, than some traditional single themed movie. In this way it makes plenty of sense that the critics liked this movie more than the general public. Make no mistake this movie was made for the Sundance crowd. I loved it nonetheless.
The central point, if there was one, revolved around the existence of soulmates. Andrew, the main character, thinks that he and Domino, his love interest, both have many soul mates. Some might exist in your life at different times and with different meanings. For a long time I was opposed to this concept. I liked the traditional romanticized view on love that there existed this one perfect person you met through devine chance and intervention. But, I think I agree with Andrew now. I think I have, and have had, many different people in my life who are soul mates. People who’s connection and compatibility could not be created through work or effort but instead exist intrinsically, deeply, and knowingly. Not all soul mates are romantic, not all soul mates are forever. That is what this movie seeks to highlight. Andrew finds soul mates both in Lola, an autistic girl whom he babysits and befriends and in Domino, the engaged and then married unattainable love. I don’t claim to be an expert in soul mates and to be honest I am still figuring out what I truly believe in relation to them. I guess I share this naivety with Andrew (more on that later). Nonetheless I think the exploration of the unique depths and intricacies of different soulmates was beautifully done.
Coming of age stories always seem to be about high school do they not? It was incredibly refreshing to find a story that follows someone in their 20s and I felt comforted in a lot of the shared experiences. Andrew's friend asks what he's doing for work and he says it's lame to talk about work at a party to which the friend says “So you either don't have a job or you have a bad job.” “I have a bad job,” he replies. A lot of my friends are scattered throughout their early to late 20’s and it is really incredible how few of them feel truly set and convicted on a path. This movie does well to relate to that experience and the uncertainty of early adulthood. Andrew has a second and inconsequential love interest he knew from high school. They share this awkward moment after hooking up where they reflect on the meaning they used to hold to each other in high school relative to what they just did at 22. People evolve in their meaning, interpretation and significance in your life. Some of my best friends are from high school yet our relationships and coexistence have dramatically changed over the years. Some people have been in my life so long that their initial entrance now has little to no meaning at all. I think that is beautiful, life's evolutions.
There was a short yet impactful venture into mental health that I really enjoyed and although it felt somewhat out of place, I was comforted by the scene. While eating popsicles late at night Andrew asks Domino what depression is like, a scene that beautifully highlights his mature naivety. And I think that phrase perfectly reflects Andrew, 22; mature enough to understand and discuss intimate and difficult concepts yet young enough to yet be burdened by their experience. Domino responds to Andrew's question by describing depression as “You don’t remember what better feels like. And then you do things that you think will make it better and they don’t. And the things I am really scared of doing are probably the things that will help me the most. But I just can’t do them.” As someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety in the past I felt comforted by this few minute scene. I’ve spent plenty of time in therapy, reading literature related to mental health topics and I’ve even probably said something similar to this before. Those few sentences really do sum up the experience, at least for me, as well as it possibly could. The existence in depression where you know something is different, not great, yet you don’t remember what the alternative is. It is such a confusing experience yet, as summed up in this movie, so simple as well. As a quick interlude, to those of you that have or are currently experiencing those sentences, one day you will find out what better feels like. You’re not alone.
I am still struggling with Andrew and Domino’s romance. A 22 year old and an engaged mother with a middle school aged daughter (she had her when she was young so she is presumably in her early 30s). Andrew is currently living the life Domino thinks she lost. She had a child so young, one that, with autism, required extended and continuous care. She tells Andrew at the end, that her life has and will always be predicated on the whims of her daughter and fiance. Even though she never explicitly says it, I do think she was truly in love with Andrew and furthermore the life that he represented. The movie, to me, leans more into the fact that her feelings for Andrew can’t be real because they aren’t in a real relationship and she likely is attached to the idea of him. But I think she really loved him too. Just for him. She was sitting there after they first met so at peace in is presence. Although her husband provided stability, which she truly craved, he never gave her that. Nonetheless, she wants Andrew to experience a life unburdened, by anyone. I don’t entirely feel satisfied with the resolution. Andrew lives the life Domino wants him to: moving into his own apartment, dating someone his own age. Domino finds the security of a husband that resolves her deep fear of abandonment. And I guess this is a realistic ending, void of tropes. I just like some tropes I think. I don’t even necessarily wish that Andrew and Domino ended up together. It wouldn’t really work. Domino tells Andrew that he can’t love her because he doesn’t even know himself. This I think is true. A lot of us, currently, have the words to describe ourselves, theories of our beings, yet lack the fundamental understanding of who we are. This is the difference between Domino and Andrew that truly keeps them apart. I guess I wish they still found what they had in each other somewhere else. I wish Domino was more in love with her husband than the safety. I wish Andrew found a different soulmate instead of the hot safe option his age.
Cha Cha Real Smooth, a movie about soulmates where neither main character ends up with a soul mate.
(Apple TV fyi)