Incoming Movie Review: A teen comedy that mistakes vulgarity for humour

Netflix's latest teen drama, Incoming, tries to walk the thin line between being raunchy and being crass and offensive. While the film succeeds at capturing the atmosphere and energy of a raucous teenage gathering, it often crosses the line.

Directors: Dave and John Chernin

Cast: Mason Thames, Ramon Reed, Raphael Alejandro, Isabella Ferreira, Ali Gallo, Bardia Seiri

Streamer: Netflix

One of the most egregious examples of this occurs at the start of the film, when Benji tells his friends, Eddie, Koosh, and Connor, about his recent encounter with his crush, Bailey. The scene takes a disturbing turn when Benji talks about his experience with her, and his friends react with inappropriate comments. This moment, intended to be funny, perpetuates harmful stereotypes. There are other examples too. A chemistry teacher engages in illegal activities and makes inappropriate comments to the students at a party. Each time he leaves a small group of teenagers at the party, he bids them farewell, but then sticks around anyway. Eventually, he sets himself accidentally on fire and jumps into a pool to save his life. The kids shout his name as though he pulled off an ingenious bit of street performance, and the teacher revels in all the applause. With the humour not really coming through, you are just left to consider the implications of the portrayal. 

Incoming also struggles with its understanding of consent and healthy relationships. In one scene, Benji tells his longtime crush Bailey that she can have sex with him if she wants without having to seek his permission. This scene sends a harmful message about consent and respect. But of course, what else can you expect from a teen comedy where a character peeps through a CCTV control room in the hopes of finding someone to have sex with?

The film's attempts at humour rely almost entirely on derogatory language. A character encourages Benji to get himself high on Ketamine. He tells Benji, “It’s like, for cats, I think. Might be horses.” The operative word is ‘horse’ to describe a woman, of course. Now, some might put all this down to “That is how teenagers talk” and “This is just a teen comedy”. To their credit, director duo Dave and John Chernin get the tone of teenage conversations right, but the question is, if it’s not really funny, then what insights are there to be gleaned from the portrayal?

Occasionally, the film threatens to come into light, like the Willy Wonka reference about a car full of human waste, but these moments needed to be more frequent. For lack of this, Incoming settles to become a disappointing teen comedy that does not deliver on its promise of a fun experience.