So frosh, so clean
There are plenty of newly released movies that I get excited for. I figure out where and how to watch them, then make a mental note to do so as soon as I can. And then there are movies I’m really and truly excited for, the ones where I’m counting down days and refreshing streaming sites, where you’d have to constrain me to prevent me from watching. It’s always the dumbest juvenile shit, too: the Snow Day musical, Bottoms, the latest Zombies, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, novelty slashers, the Turtles All the Way Down adaptation, etc. I guess I’m a corny seventeen-year-old at heart.
Incoming is an example of the latter. I was drawn to it. Two seasoned comedy TV writers, Dave and John Chernin, making their film debut with a throwback freshman-loser-boys comedy halfway between American Pie and Superbad? Oh hell yeah. Nothing, not even mixed reviews, would stop me (as if a movie like this would ever get good reviews in 2024). It’s peak “Dan-core,” to borrow a term from our podcast.
And the result doesn’t quite reach the soaring, hysterical highs I hoped, but it’s honestly pretty solid. When you see the rating below, understand my actual viewing experience is probably a tick higher than it, but I’m trusting my better judgment and discretion. I just don’t think that a movie with such a central diarrhea scene can be placed in the teen comedy annals.
But Incoming does what most of the good and very few of the bad teen sex comedies do, which is to infuse its characters with dignity and naivete rather than cynicism. The film follows four freshmen during the start of their freshman year, culminating in the year’s first party. The group includes generically likeable protagonist Benj (Mason Thames), the geekier Eddy (Ramon Reed) and Connor (Raphael Alejandro), and the wannabe playboy Koosh (Bardia Seiri). Koosh’s older brother is a minor TikTok celebrity and hosting a big party the first weekend after school starts.
Despite the light logline, the film is pretty heavy on character set-up, taking its time to get to the big shindig, but effectively getting us invested in each of the four and shading each of their personalities. Benj’s arc is romantic, as he is smitten with his bitchy sister’s (Ali Gallo) best friend Bailey (Isabella Ferreira) and hoping to make a move on her now that he’s a real-deal “grown up” high schooler. Connor wants to overcome his shrimpy stature and mean nickname, Fetus. Eddie’s mom is dating a total d-bag that he’s too cowardly to stand up to. Koosh wants to cash in on his brother’s reputation as a player and seduce some drunk girls.
It’s all executed at a pretty rock solid level, though it’s not neraly distinct or funny enough to whiff any sort of comedy greatness, especially as compared, e.g., to the terrific opening hour of Snack Shack. Incoming successfully walks a tightrope between glorifying its debauchery and subverting it. The “twists” on how party culture and the teenage social scene aren’t really as fun or inspired as they seem will only seem fresh and clever if you haven’t seen a teen film since Sixteen Candles. But even if they’re not especially novel, these insights do serve as effective and satisfying character growth for the protagonists over the runtime.
Buoying the film is the strong stable of side characters that get some interesting things to do. For example, there’s the dirtbag senior Ruby (Thomas Barbusca), Benj’s beleaguered mom (Kaitlin Olson), queen bee Katrina (Loren Gray), and Koosh’s older brother (Kayvan Shai). Most memorable among side characters is the increasingly degraded “cool” science teacher who crashes the party, Mr. Studebaker (Bobby Cannavale).
The characters split off onto parallel arcs during the big party: Koosh deceitfully arranges for some facetime with an oblivious girl; Benj makes some inroads on wooing Bailey; and Eddy and Connor inadvertently become Uber drivers in the car they’re taking for a joyride. The latter of these threads is the one where we get the aforementioned scatology scene that is brutally and unnecessarily gross in the moment, though there are some funny jokes about it later in the film.
The film ends with a tonally off-putting scene of Benj performing a grand romantic gesture; it’s askew from the “be yourself and don’t overdo it” moral the rest of the film builds to. (I gather from some Letterboxd review that Thames is a bit of a musician and heartthrob among the teen girl audience.) But even this showy finale is slightly subverted with some comeuppance.
This final scene also drops some hints that the Chernin brothers view this film as the birth of a series, a la American Pie. And I would absolutely be okay with a few more Incoming outings. My suggestion: a Christmas-themed episode set during the middle of sophomore year, a Halloween-set interlude during junior year, and a graduation grand finale.
It’s a fun time overall, good-spirited and affirming without dulling its sophomoric edge. The comedy is decently funny, but not a laugh-til-it-hurts powerhouse. As a ‘90s or early ‘00s film, it would be totally run of the mill, but that ordinariness makes it a bit of an outlier in 2024, and it’s never so pandering or slangy as most Gen Z-targeted comedies. But it is in no way a revelation. Trust your instincts: If you think it sounds like a treat, it probably will be; if it sounds like an eye-roll, it definitely will be.
Is It Good?
Good (5/8)
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