The gross-out high school comedy: we all get older, they stay the same. “Incoming” marks the genre’s latest addition, a Netflix release written and directed by Dave and John Chernin, who cut their teeth on the landmark vulgarity of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” before creating the short-lived but memorably raucous Fox comedy “The Mick.” The filmmaking brothers’ story for “Incoming” is chock-full of tried-and-true tropes: the rizzless freshman, the grump sister, the wannabe ladies’ man, the blond queen bee. But the Chernins manage a jaunty 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 on Earth, and “Incoming” knows it, establishing its main ensemble with a punchy opening act that benefits from the Chernins’ sitcom background. Four uncertain young men have entered the gauntlet of high school. Benj (Mason Thomas) is convinced he can date sophomore Bailey (Isabelle Ferreira). Connor (Raphael Alejandro) hasn’t hit his growth spurt and gets nicknamed Fetus. Eddie (Ramon Reed) hates his mom’s moneyed boyfriend (a memorably jaded Scott MacArthur, returning to the Chernins after “The Mick”). And Danah (Bardia Seiri) is banking on hooking up with a senior to boost his rep. A party at the end of the week will change their lives.
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Except it won’t, of course. One party is just one party. Even with up-to-date touches like TikTok interstitials and nonchalant LGBTQ acceptance, “Incoming” is possessed by the same nostalgia for teenage years that many of its less PC genre ancestors were. No matter the clique, there’s a uniform warmth for students up and down the high school’s sociological food chain. Even when someone bends their morals — as Danah does when he sets up security cameras to target his dream girl and lock her in a room with him — they face some swift, nut-punch comeuppance and, not long after, unqualified forgiveness.
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That clemency comes too easy in “Incoming,” which is quickly defined by a sense of moral guardrails that won’t be crossed, even as the film flexes its R rating with k-hole ventures and nipple close-ups. Benj, Eddie, Connor and even Danah all possess their own insecurities, but they are unified by an evident sense of right and wrong. As the film siphons the four into separate storylines, their moral backbones keep the comedy from ever testing itself with true debauchery.
The Chernin brothers prove more adventurous with various side personalities, including Bobby Cannavale as a friendly sadsack chemistry teacher that takes his students up on binge drinking at the party. The character largely winds up a punching bag, but there are a few humorous curveballs when Cannavale plays the pathos of an adult whose social sphere is limited to the teenagers he grades. Likewise, Ali Gallo seems underutilized as Benj’s flinty sister Alyssa, who’s fresh off a nose job. A memorable sequence is distinguished by the touch of Alyssa loudly wheezing through her newly aligned nostrils: one of the few moments where “Incoming” risks becoming mean-spirited, and is rewarded with a good joke.
All of these embarrassments prove temporary though, including a climactic faux pas by Benj during the following week’s school assembly. It’s true that teenagers can forget an act of social self-immolation as soon as another one appears, but “Incoming” moves on too quickly for such mortifying pauses to register. The result mostly resembles a sitcom pilot, with somewhat plain characters now established to plug into more absurd and complex situations, with the promise of looping back to status quo by the end of each episode. As a standalone, “Incoming” hits its marks, but its cast amounts to a collection of tics, while its appetite for raunch seems unfulfilled.
