Movies won’t stop pursuing the next great one crazy night adolescent comedy anytime soon. You know, that “Superbad” formula obliquely indebted to much darker single-night films about hapless grown-ups, like “After Hours.” And in a way, cinema aimed towards young eyeballs is all the richer for it. Without that perpetual effort, we would have never gotten the uproarious and refreshingly sex-positive “Blockers,” the genially fun “Booksmart,” the high-adrenaline “Bodies Bodies Bodies” or the best of them all, “Emergency,” a thrilling college comedy that also had something substantial to say on race, gender and class in America.
“Incoming,” from the “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” duo Dave and John Chernin as co-writers and directors, is the next entry in this subgenre, and it’s a pretty good one, too! The jokes are funny (sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny), mostly because they’re unafraid to rattle a little—a quality that many recent comedies overeager to pander to the audience inauthentically can learn a thing or two from. In that, the kids in “Incoming” are messy, sometimes even ill-mannered, mean and clueless like we all have been in real life.
But most importantly, “Incoming” scores points for its casting instincts. In the lead as Benjamin “Benj” Nielsen is Mason Thames, a floppy-haired, kind-eyed actor with the disarming disposition of a ‘80s teen movie star, who wouldn’t feel out of place in something like “Adventures in Babysitting.” (On that note, the film itself has healthy doses of nods to the more vintage teen fare, too.) Geeky and well-meaning, Benji has a crush on his misanthropic big sister Alyssa’s best friend Bailey (Ali Gallo and Isabella Ferreira, respectively). Meanwhile, dumped by her ex-girlfriend for another girl, Alyssa tries to get over her heartbreak in unorthodox ways and obsesses over her nose-job makeover, assuming that supposedly better looks might lead to a better life.
Elsewhere, Benj’s best friends Eddie, Connor and Danah “Koosh” Koushani—played by the delightful trio Ramon Reed, Raphael Alejandro and Bardia Seiri, respectively—have issues on the first day of the school, as well. The uber-rich Koosh is under the shadow of his older and more popular brother, desperately trying to co-host his annual back-to-school party—a boozy and druggy affair. Eddie and Connor, meanwhile are hoping to keep their head low to get through the year in one piece, with Connor especially struggling to sidestep a cruel nickname the school’s bullies have given him. There is of course a popular girl, too—in their school, it’s Katrina (Loren Gray), someone the boys would do anything to be cool enough to hang with.
Opportunity to overcome their insecurities presents itself when the quartet heads to Koosh’s party, only to be told that just one of them could stay as Koosh’s +1. Desperate to get with Bailey, Benj convinces the rest of the clan to be that guest, while Eddie and Connor embark on their own adventure across the city. Also in the mix is the kids’ fun-loving chemistry teacher Mr. Studebaker (a hysterical Bobby Cannavale), whose irresponsible actions throughout the film go from lightly questionable to highly inappropriate fast.
But the kids are the main attraction in “Incoming,” and they bring it. On one pretty corner of their mansion, the genial but frequently miscalculating Koosh gives a consenting girl a spa treatment as a result of a series of lies that she gets to the bottom of. Benj manages to impress Bailey on another corner, only to mess it up quickly. And running away with the film’s best story line (as well as most rewarding resolution), Connor and Eddie end up caring for a blind-drunk Katrina in the most gentlemanly way imaginable across one crappy (literally) night.
Hilarity ensues, but so do the lessons. From Alyssa to Mr. Studebaker, everyone in “Incoming” gets what they deserve, good or bad, as the Chernins’ film is one that neither panders in an overtly preachy manner, nor lets its players off the hook easily. In this raunchy little escapade, actions have consequences.
Still, you do wish that they’d let Benj win a little something—perhaps forgiveness, or a possibility towards a pardon. Without that, you can’t help but feel that “Incoming” doesn’t quite arrive in its finale in the big way that it’s earned. But thankfully, friendships survive, along with the undying tradition of teen comedies. And perhaps that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
