Acclaimed Sundance movie explores love, awkwardness on bar mitzvah circuit

JTA — A new Jewish coming-of-age film commences with the hero, at age 12, finding turned down by an older lady at a bar mitzvah.

Then the film jumps to a ten years afterwards, as the major character embarks on a vocation as a bar mitzvah “party starter.”

It is an not likely vocation for a character who is not Jewish, specifically a person created and performed by somebody who isn’t, possibly.

But that is the premise of “Cha Cha Serious Sleek,” 1 of the a lot more hugely regarded movies that debuted this week at the (digital) Sundance Film Pageant, successful the viewers prize for most effective drama.

Directed by and starring the youthful filmmaker Cooper Raiff, and obtained by Apple Tv+ for a $15 million distribution offer, the film employs the bar mitzvah circuit as a backdrop for an aimless young man’s maturation. Its title, a lyric from the ubiquitous DJ Casper dance monitor “Cha Cha Slide,” will prompt a Pavlovian reaction from any person who’s attended any shindig overseen by the likes of this film’s protagonist.

Raiff performs Andrew, a familiar sort in coming-of-age cinema: He’s a recent college or university graduate with no substantially course or ambition. A single Saturday, accompanying his youthful brother (Evan Assante) to a bar mitzvah, Andrew succeeds in finding the young children, including an autistic woman named Lola (Vanessa Burghardt), to dance.

Inspite of not staying Jewish himself, Andrew is “swarmed by Jewish mothers” and persuaded to commence a little something of organization, as a “Jig Conductor” at space bar and bat mitzvahs — a probably valuable hustle, as any one who’s ever had to approach a kosher preteen dance celebration to accompany their child’s Torah reading through is aware of all too perfectly. He also will get close with Lola’s mom, Domino (Dakota Johnson), and the entire procedure puts him on the path towards adult responsibility.

The movie’s bar mitzvah functions tumble in line with most mainstream Hollywood depictions of the situation, where by it appears that the total course at university, as effectively as their mothers and fathers, are invited to just about every week’s festivities.

We do see candle lights and Hamotzi and Kiddush blessings, even though the music tends significantly less toward “Hava Nagila” and much more toward pop. When Raiff’s character performs Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s raunchy strike “WAP,” it leads to the accusation, from one particular of the mothers, that “you ashamed Rabbi Steinberg.”

https://www.youtube.com/enjoy?v=d1GzeOg2HH4

But there is one more, a lot more delicate Jewish connection to the film’s music: Its rating was composed, in part, by Este Haim, of the rock band Haim, and whose sister Alana starred in “Licorice Pizza,” an additional current Jewish-themed coming-of-age movie.

Like his character, Raiff, whose prior film was the college or university-set 2020 indie strike “Shithouse,” isn’t Jewish himself. In an job interview with Variety, Raiff mentioned he went to bar mitzvahs “every weekend” as a kid. His movie yet captures lots of aspects of the bar mitzvah bash practical experience, from sneaking off for initial kisses, to kids getting nervous about getting the 1st a single to get up and dance.

There are lots of Jewish performers in the cast, including Brad Garrett as Andrew’s stepfather, and Israeli actress Odeya Rush, very best identified from “Lady Bird” and the Israeli drama collection “Baalat HaChalomot,” participating in a casual girlfriend. And Leslie Mann, who performs Andrew’s mother, is married to prolific Jewish director Judd Apatow, who has designed many flicks like this a person about 20-a little something man-small children (in some cases played by Seth Rogen) getting belated actions toward expanding up.

The film depicts a comparatively secular tradition in which seemingly every family members in town with a child that age, whether Jewish or not, gathers with each other each 7 days at a bar or bat mitzvah. It is a area wherever Jews experience at ease welcoming their gentile neighbors into the synagogue, though also trusting a non-Jew to get the dancing started. Johnson’s character even states, at 1 position, that she often envies Judaism.

Whether or not all this represents a heartwarming example of interfaith harmony, or a shameful watering down of the sacred coming-of-age ritual — with the non-Jewish protagonist profiting from his cultural appropriation — may extremely effectively arise as a contentious debate after people today start off seeing the movie.

“Cha Cha Serious Smooth” will get there on Apple Tv set+, though there is no word on the timing of its release, or irrespective of whether it will have a operate in theaters as well.