Les Nouveaux

Four friends are starting high school. Misadventures begin. This is written and directed by Dave Chernin and John Chernin. The brothers are probably the most important people in this project. They did some Sunny in Philadelphia and co-created The Mick. That's why they got Kaitlin Olson. They seem to be going for Superbad and Project X. It's nowhere near as good as Superbad. Mostly, I don't love the four boys, but they are young enough to play high schoolers. It is odd that they are all going with older ladies. The lead coupling is cute and that's most appealing story. Benji should do his singing with all the marker marks on his face. That would be funnier. The movie is fine, but it's always a little less than optimal. The creepy kid has a creepy encounter. I would have paired him up with someone scary and scared him straight and maybe she could protect him from the older brother. Again, that would be funnier. The two spares has a surprisingly PG time with the school hottie. I'm not a fan of poop jokes and her poop looks like mustard. The general idea of this movie is fine, but I would modify some of this. I appreciate what Cannavale is trying to do, but his character needs to be a socially-awkward science nerd and I don't buy him in that. This movie has its moments.

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.

I honestly enjoy movies like these it was just a funny and raunchy teen movie. But it is a movie to leave in the background to be honest. Casting was odd though because the irl age difference w the love interests is 17 and 21. It also seems like it was very unoriginal and with time we should move on to new things. Ykwim? It just seems like Superbad and project X mixed together or something, as a group we need to move on from movies that are about wanting to go to "big kid parties" and find something new to enjoy. I think that is also only because the new actors these days are just different. I can't explain it but they are diff.

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.

It's only IP sequels and reboots.. but this was original and actually pretty funny for what it is.. a netflix original. It's not often we see comedies push boundaries in these times like 'Superbad' or any other early '00's film. It pushed most boundaries where comedies don't do go anymore in some scenes which was surprising and actually got a laugh from me. The main four (who I thought were going to be annoying) were actually pretty funny, it felt more solid than 'Good boys' in my opinion. The story was generic but the side characters make up for the whole setting. Give it a watch on a weekend as a popcorn movie and not overthink it as a high rated comedy but a good laugh guaranteed.