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Tom's Guide
5 teen comedies like Netflix's 'Incoming' but better
By Josh Bell,
1 day ago
Since its release on Netflix last week, the raunchy teen comedy “Incoming” has been a fixture on the streaming service’s top 10 movies chart , and it’s currently at No. 1, ahead of Netflix originals like the Mark Wahlberg/Halle Berry action movie “The Union” and new installments of the “Untold” sports documentary franchise. Viewers have clearly been eager to stream the movie about four friends navigating their first high school party, with its deliberate throwbacks to earlier teen comedies.
“Incoming” falls far short of the movies it attempts to evoke, though, with annoying characters, sloppy plotting, and gross-out humor that is more disgusting than amusing. Critics have torn “Incoming” apart, giving it a dismal 27 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes , and the audience rating is only marginally positive at 61 percent.
Here are five better teen comedies that capture the humor and humiliation of high school, to check out instead of watching “Incoming.”
‘Superbad’
The relentless promotion of “Incoming” as the “Superbad” of a new generation did the Netflix movie no favors since director Greg Mottola’s 2007 teen comedy only makes “Incoming” look even clumsier and more desperate in comparison. The main characters in “Superbad” are high school seniors, not freshmen, but they’re also awkward outsiders hoping to score thanks to their invitation to a major house party.
Screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were inspired by their own lifelong friendship, and that connection shines through in the dynamic between stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. There are plenty of raunchy jokes in “Superbad,” but they all come from a place of genuine enthusiasm, and the central friendship is always just as important as the lowbrow humor. Even notorious weirdo McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) eventually gets the appreciation he deserves.
Writer-director Richard Linklater’s 1976-set comedy is proof that the hazing of high school freshmen is an unfortunate time-honored tradition, even if the treatment that the young characters are subjected to in this movie would probably be considered physical abuse today. Linklater doesn’t pretend otherwise, though, and his film evokes nostalgic warmth without glossing over the painful aspects of being a teenager.
The vast ensemble of “Dazed and Confused” includes more than just the wide-eyed freshmen looking to get their first taste of high school debauchery over the course of a single day and night in Austin, Texas. Linklater follows everyone from jocks to burnouts, all aiming to hook up, smoke out, and forget about the existential dread of the future for a little while.
The dominant pop-culture image of “Risky Business” is still star Tom Cruise dancing to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” without any pants on, but writer-director Paul Brickman’s film is more sophisticated and more melancholy than that one moment would indicate. Like many fellow teen movie protagonists, Cruise’s Joel Goodsen parties at his house while his parents are away, but Joel’s frivolous good time eventually turns into a lesson about the emptiness of ambition.
As he makes a connection with a shrewd prostitute played by Rebecca De Mornay, Joel comes to realize that his life of comfort and privilege is largely hollow and that he derives no satisfaction from his rote pursuit of admission to Princeton. Brickman delivers a pessimistic message within the framework of an entertaining dark comedy, showing the bleak undercurrent of Hollywood teenage antics.
Instead of throwing a huge party, the misfit main characters in “Bottoms” take a more unconventional approach to attracting the attention of the popular kids at their high school: They start a fight club. Best friends PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) end up with an unearned reputation as juvenile delinquents, which they parlay into a supposed self-defense class for female students. Really, they just want to get closer to the cheerleaders they have crushes on, which works out surprisingly well, at least for a little while.
“Bottoms” puts a chaotic queer spin on classic teen-comedy elements, leading up to a surreal, violent finale that completely departs from reality. Despite its sometimes abrasive strangeness, it’s unexpectedly sweet and heartwarming, both in the enduring friendship between PJ and Josie and in the fledgling romances they find with fellow students.
The sight of teenager Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) having carnal relations with an apple pie seems almost quaint now, but there’s still plenty of edgy material in this 1990s staple, which launched numerous inferior sequels. The concept is simple: Jim and his friends Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) are determined to lose their virginities before prom night, and they employ various dubious methods to achieve that goal.
That involves some creepy spying on a foreign exchange student (Shannon Elizabeth) in a set-up that “Incoming” weakly attempts to emulate, as well as some less unsavory practices. “American Pie” is full of memorable supporting characters, including Seann William Scott as school horndog Stifler and Jennifer Coolidge as his equally horny mom. It’s goofy and fun, even at its nastiest.
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