Autistic People Deserve Better Than ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

Apple TV+Cha Cha Real Smooth is a selfish movie. Writer/producer/director/editor Cooper Raiff, who also stars in the film as protagonist Andrew, has a brief but noticeable history of making art all about himself, and the Apple TV+/Sundance darling is only the latest example.In 2020, Raiff broke through at SXSW with his Grand Jury Prize-winning debut Shithouse, another film in which he controlled all aspects of production. That film’s lead character (whom he also played) attempted to find love at college with a generically perfect character that read like a self-gratifying insert for Raiff himself.Cha Cha Real Smooth, his sophomore feature, is more of the same. The only meaningful difference is that Raiff’s character has now graduated college. He’s currently slumming it in the liminal space of entry-level food court jobs that aren’t helping him move out of his parents’ house.Read more at The Daily Beast.