The gross-out high school comedy: We all get older, they stay the same. “Incoming” is the latest addition to the genre, a Netflix release written and directed by Dave and John Chernin, who cut their teeth on the groundbreaking vulgarity of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” before creating the short-lived but unforgettably raucous Fox comedy “The Mick.” The filmmaking brothers’ story for “Incoming” is chock-full of tried-and-true cliches: the hairless freshman, the curmudgeonly sister, the wannabe womanizer, the blonde queen bee. But the Chernins create a brisk pace that energizes these familiar ingredients, more in the gag department than in the film’s superficial dramatic components.
Fourteen-year-old boys aren’t the most complicated people in the world, and “Incoming” knows this, establishing its main cast with a powerful opening act that capitalizes on the Chernins’ sitcom background. Four insecure young men have embarked on the rigors of high school. Benj (Mason Thomas) is convinced he can date second-grader Bailey (Isabelle Ferreira). Connor (Raphael Alejandro) hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet and is nicknamed Fetus. Eddie (Ramon Reed) hates his mom’s rich boyfriend (an unforgettably jaded Scott MacArthur, who returned to the Chernins after “The Mick”). And Danah (Bardia Seiri) hopes to hook up with a twelfth-grader to boost his reputation. An end-of-week party will change their lives.
Except, of course, that it won’t. A party is just a party. Even with modern touches like TikTok interstitials and nonchalant LGBTQ acceptance, Incoming is animated by the same nostalgia for teenage years as many of its less politically correct predecessors. No matter what clique they belong to, the students are equally comfortable throughout the sociological food chain of high school. Even when someone breaks their moral code—like Danah did when he set up security cameras to target the girl of his dreams and lock her in a room with him—they face swift and harsh punishment, and expect unconditional forgiveness not long afterward.
That blandness comes across too easily in Incoming, as the film quickly becomes marked by a sense of moral guardrails that won’t be crossed, even as the movie pushes its R rating to the limit with k-hole adventures and nipple close-ups. Benj, Eddie, Connor and even Danah all have their own insecurities, but they’re united by an obvious sense of right and wrong. While the film squeezes the four into separate storylines, their moral backbone prevents the comedy from ever grappling with true debauchery.
The Chernin brothers prove more experimental with various supporting personalities, including Bobby Cannavale as a kindly, sad chemistry teacher who calls out his students at the party about drinking. The character largely becomes a punching bag, but there are a few humorous surprises when Cannavale plays the pathos of an adult whose social circle is limited to the teenagers he grades. Likewise, Ali Gallo seems underused as Benj’s rock-hard sister Alyssa, who just had a nose job. One memorable scene is marked by the touch of Alyssa, who gasps loudly through her realigned nostrils: one of the few moments when “Incoming” risks becoming vicious and is rewarded with a good joke.
All of these embarrassments prove temporary, however, including a crucial faux pas by Benj during the school assembly the following week. It’s true that teenagers can forget one act of social self-immolation as soon as another occurs, but “Incoming” moves on too quickly for such awkward pauses to register. The result largely resembles a sitcom pilot, with the somewhat unremarkable characters now being roped into more absurd and complex situations, with the promise of a return to the status quo at the end of each episode. As a standalone film, “Incoming” hits the mark, but its cast is a collection of tics while its appetite for profanity seems unfulfilled.
