How the Sad Boy Archetypes Complicates Cooper Raiff's Films

The ambitious and wildly successful Cooper Raiff has created two inspiring films in Shithouse and Cha Cha Real Smooth. Both stories have a throughline of embracing the moment, something that Raiff is certainly doing in real life with his third film Trashers starring David Harbour and Cooper Hoffman starting production in the fall. What makes Raiff’s films so endearing and beloved is that they harmonize timeless and cathartic coming-of-age journey's with arthouse sensibilities. However, while both films are well-intended and uncomplicatedly sweet, Raiff complicates the messages of his films by not fully investigating the complexities of both his lead characters Alex and Andrew (played by Raiff), both of whom oddly benefit from the much-maligned Sad Boy archetype.