‘Incoming’ Movie Review: Bobby Cannavale Can’t Save This Tame R-Rated Netflix Comedy

From John and Dave Chernin, the creators of FX’s “The Mick,” Incoming takes a bold swing at their vision of the raunchy high school party comedy featuring the lives and times of four incoming freshmen boys trying to make their mark in their first week.

Led by The Black Phone’s Mason Thames as Benj, the 4 friends – Benj, Koosh, Eddie, & Connor – try to make the night of a huge party thrown by Koosh’s brother epic. Koosh wants to impress his brother by hooking up with a senior, Benj wants to make the moves on his sister’s best friend Bailey, and Eddie & Connor wish to show the world they aren’t lame pushovers after they’re disinvited from the party.

Of course, because this is a high school R-rated comedy, things don’t always go according to plan. Drug mishaps, drunken diarrhea, a fight with skater guys, & a trip to the hospital trip them up on their way to legendary freshman status.

Unlike its predecessors in the high school teen comedy subgenre, Incoming feels satisfied with being all flash and no substance. American Pie, Superbad, Booksmart – these movies found the time to form unique bonds between their core friend characters and set up stakes to bring them even closer before their futures beyond high school may get in the way.

Incoming does none of that. 20 minutes into the movie, the party begins, leaving barely any time to establish why these 4 are friends, what goals they have in mind for themselves, & how they can help each other get them done. Even when we do get a glimpse of what they want, it’s so low stakes & thin that I barely cared to follow it.

For example, the main character of Benj pines for his sister’s friend Bailey after they had a late-night conversation when they both couldn’t sleep. She seems to have been around for a long time as she talks about being around for an early family memory of Benj singing Stevie Wonder to his mother’s delight. It’s talked about in the film a couple times that Benj stopped doing musical theater or singing in general because he thought it might seem lame as he started high school and wanted to impress girls like Bailey. So while they barely talk about it, never show him singing in any capacity, and don’t have any of his current friends involved in that part of his life, the movie decides to make a big splash in the final minutes between Benj & Bailey based solely on his singing past. This is just one example of how the film doesn’t establish character or story and seems to just fumble together fragments of what they wanted to see in an R-rated teen comedy.

Here’s the kicker to all this: even with the focus being more on moments of outlandish behavior to justify the Superbad clone packaging, the movie somehow still feels tame. Benj does drugs mostly by force or by accident to no consequence and avoids the only fight in the movie with a nothing side character taking the brunt. Koosh hurts himself by accident, trying to politely seduce a senior girl. Eddie & Connor, aka “Fetus,” steal Eddie’s mom’s boyfriend’s car only to get ice cream, take a drunk girl to Taco Bell, and do right by her by cleaning her up after a super gross diarrhea disaster. All these things feel pretty safe or low stakes for such a large part of the movie.

The brightest aspect of the film is in its cast, as the movie would be a complete disaster without them. The aforementioned Mason Thames and Isabella Ferreira (Love, Victor, Crush) as Bailey have charm & adorable looks that will serve well in the future; The Mick’s Thomas Barbusca plays the obnoxious waste of space Ruby with an effective presence; and Bobby Cannavale stands out as try-hard science teacher Mr. Studebaker aka Studes who makes for one of the most complete characters as a lonely, desperate man dedicated to his students in all the wrong ways that ultimately end in disaster.

Unfortunately, that is not enough to make Incoming more than flashes of fun & raunchiness that will ultimately be discarded for its lack of story, friendships, and point of view. Netflix seems to think this is a “raucous teen comedy with a heart,” but I see a tame Rated R comedy that thinks if they hit the quadrants of nudity, drugs, booze, & violence, it will be memorable like the teen comedies of past years and it’s far from it. Maybe it will get some traction with the younger teenage group, but they can definitely do better elsewhere.

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Watch Incoming on Netflix If You Liked

• Superbad
• Good Boys
• Bottoms
• Booksmart

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MVP of Incoming

Bobby Cannavale as Mr. Studebaker

While I’m sure, I will get dinged as the 40-year-old critic making the non-teen the MVP of a teen comedy, Bobby Cannavale deserves this spotlight despite any apparent biases.

As noted above, Cannavale’s Mr. Studebaker is one of the rare characters in Incoming that seems complete, plausible, & filled with solid lines and physical humor that gives the movie the edge it craves. From his in-school “cool uncle” vibe to his loner neediness manifesting in doing shots, taking bong rips, & accidentally setting himself on fire, Cannavale makes you believe and cringe along with every misguided step towards trying to impress someone in his life for once.

Kudos to Cannavale for being (I believe) my first repeat MVP after being my favorite part of Bill Burr’s Old Dads last year.

Tries so hard to be outlandish and cool like the successful films of the teen comedy genre, but doesn’t have a story or characters worth guiding us through the journey.