Plot

Four freshmen navigate the terrors of adolescence at their first-ever high school party.

Cast

Mason "The Black Phone" Thames arguably leads and flanked by the likes of veteran Bobby Cannavale who is on incredible form here! Always Sunny star Kaitlin Olson and a bunch of kids I'm not familiar with though deliver for the most part especially Isabella Ferreira.

Verdict

In a rare decision to watch something that's not a horror movie I picked Incoming for movie night and figured based on the description it would be something in the vein of Good Boys (2019) which I enjoyed considerably more than I expected. Well, I was right even though it's not on quite the same level.

Putting kids into the same adult situations while telling a bit of a goofy coming of age story Incoming delivers the laughs, an element of gross out humor, some touching moments and a mostly decent cast.

The older I get the harder I am to please but especially harder to make laugh and that's why I seem to have distanced myself from the entire comedy genre, thankfully Incoming renewed my faith a bit. It's hardly art, but it provides giggles and sometimes that's all we need.

Rants

The US movies always present a very different world than in the UK. When I was a kid there were no "First high school parties", house parties on the scale of these movies simply weren't a thing and you know what else wasn't? Proms! The UK isn't known for that, sure there are some these days but I never got to experience that. On the flipside at least my high school experience involved zero fear of being shot, so there's that.

The Good

Cast deliver Isabella Ferreira and Bobby Cannavale were great Some genuinely funny moments

The Bad

Bit cliched in places Not convinced by that final scene Kaitlin Olson.

Incoming had its moments and the cast of young talent definitely have great chemistry but that doesn't erase the cringe factor. The way Benji is obsessed with his sister's friend is more pathetic than it is sweet. Danah's brother isn't teasing him he's straight up abusing him and that is sad no matter how much of a creep he is.

I'm not exactly one for fecal jokes but the way Connor and Eddie reacted to a girl defecating in their car caused me to laugh uncontrollably. Despite their situation they actually seem to have more self respect than their other two friends.

A lot of the the characters aren't exactly what you'd call likeable and I'm not sure any of them actually learn a lesson from this. In fact this felt less like a movie and more like the the first episode of a tv show, which this story might work better as.

At least this film used real teenagers for the cast instead of a bunch of twenty somethings pretending to be teens.

The first 30 minutes aren't that good but it's getting better and at the end it's a lot better than expected. It feels like a teen movie like every other but there are lot's of thinks that I would have expected totally different. It's not like normally when the absolute nerds get lucky once and have the night of their lives. Those are normal kids (played by actual teen actors) that are actually doing pretty well. There's some actually pretty interesting side stories. The friend group doesn't have the classical storyline of having a fight and getting back together to get the girl. It's not everybody chasing after that popular girl. The teacher seems to actually be cool with personal problems. The main character doesn't get beaten up like normally. The sister has character development. The main character isn't perfect and the one side character actually grows balls. In my opinion often different than expected. But. Still based on the standard story for such movies. It may be a little over the top. It will make you cringe sometimes. And it's no movie to watch with the family. Recommend to watch for single boys from 12 to 25.