Here is a daft-as-a-brush Welsh comedy shot under pandemic rules last year with a vaguely coronavirus theme: it’s about a group of eccentric oldies living together on a caravan site, desperate to avoid spending their twilight years in a care home. It’s all very silly, with a few enjoyable moments. The cast formed a bubble on the Gower peninsula to make it. Clearly, they’re having a massive laugh, but to be honest, anyone else might struggle to get much out of it.
Ruby Ashbourne Serkis (daughter of Andy Serkis) gives the performance of the film as Libby, who’s in her mid 20s and owns the La Cha Cha caravan park with her brother Damien (played by her real-life brother Sonny Ashbourne Serkis). The site is a haven for mostly retirement-age oddballs and crusties living off the grid. There’s a couple of naturists and a group of beardy ex-military gay types who run around paintballing all day in fatigues. Though, for a film about seniors, the romance between Libby and an Irishman who checks in for the night, played by Liam Hourican, takes up an awful lot of screen time.
The film’s director Kevin Allen ropes in actors from his 1997 cult comedy Twin Town to make quirky cameos. His brother Keith Allen plays one of the gay paintballers; Rhys Ifans briefly appears as a loopy gangster. Not a single moment is convincing and the film hinges on a cheesy storyline about La Cha Cha being under threat of repossession. The whole thing has a decidedly sitcom feel, though if it was made for TV the script would have had a thorough going over.
• La Cha Cha is released on 17 September in cinemas.