CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH (B+) - The sophomore effort from the appealing young writer-director Cooper Raiff ("Shithouse") mostly succeeds by using a similar style of his first film -- young adult (Raiff in both instances) adrift in the world and not afraid to lay his sensitivity out there for all to see. Whereas "Shithouse" found our young hero leaving the nest and going off to college, here Andrew has just finished college and immediately falls into a dead-end fast-food job while his girlfriend goes off on an adventure in Barcelona.
Andrew's little brother, David (Evan Assante) is 13, so he and all his co-hort are enjoying bar/bat mitzvah season. When Andrew rescues one of the parties by jolting it to life, he suddenly is in demand as a party-starter. It gives him purpose, and he also finds an opportunity to befriend the mother of a picked-on autistic girl. What could have been a cheesy play on "The Graduate" instead thrives with nuance in Raiff's hands. It helps that Dakota Johnson brings her trademark slinkiness to the role of the mom but adds layers of personality and even grief.
Raiff also plays well off of Leslie Mann, perfect as Andrew's mother, and he spars with Brad Gilbert, who plays the gruff stepfather. Andrew has a loving rapport with his little brother, trying to act like the wise older sibling, but obviously faking it poorly. And Vanessa Burghardt, who is on the spectrum herself, is strong as Lola, a multi-dimensional teen.
You will either buy into Raiff's shtick or you won't. And I would have ended this about 15 minutes sooner, before some of the shmaltz seeped in. But I smiled a lot throughout; Raiff, almost like an Anglo Woody Allen, has a natural way of fumbling his interactions in an endearing way. He comes off as a genuine wayward soul. I can't see him going to the same well a third time, but let's see what he does next.
X (B-minus) - You won't find very many horror films on these pages, but this one has just enough self-awareness and humor to be considered passable entertainment. It's 1979, and a bunch of horny Texans book the back quarters of a farm house inhabited by a creepy old couple in order to shoot a porn film.
The god-fearing old folks don't quite cotton to the hijinks, and in a nod to the movies of the late '70s that this is modeled on (in meta fashion), the old you-fuck-you-die rule kicks in. Much blood will be spilled, in some mildly creative ways. The sex scenes, however, are bland. (Again, in a nod to tradition, we get plenty of old-style tits but no male frontal nudity.)
Mia Goth ("Emma"), above, is compelling as the lead here, followed closely by the prototypical blond bimbo played by Brittany Snow from the "Pitch Perfect" movies. Martin Henderson does a bad Matthew McConaughey impersonation as the cowboy-hatted producer and sleaze. The old couple are distractingly portrayed by younger actors obviously pretending to be geezers. (Maybe that's why they have super-human strength despite purporting to be in their 80s.)
Anyway, this playful outing from pulp journeyman Ti West has barely enough twists and goofs to hold your interest for one hour and 45 minutes, though you will be rewarded if you are patient enough to hold out for the pitch-perfect final line of the movie. The rest of the movie should have strived to be as clever as that one punch line.
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