“High School’s gonna murder you.”

Ready to serve as many underaged, laugh out loud moments as it is physical eyerolls from the corny script, Incoming is a film too obviously inspired by the likes of Superbad and Fast Times at Ridgemont High that’s ultimately told through the epic and outlandish lens of something akin to Project X, and yet it goes down somewhat smoothly despite all of the bumps and bruises and burps along the way. It’s a country mile away from a classic, but it’s fun and endearing in most of the right ways. A lack of originality and structure keep this tadpole from turning into a toad worth a make out session; the princely hopes sink under the scope of the juvenile antics.

Benj (Mason Thames, who seems like a star in the making) – first seen practicing making out with a mirror like I can admittedly attest too many young men do –  is the leader of his little Freshman pack. Eddie (Ramon Reed) is the most careful of the bunch despite wishing a lightning strike on his mom’s Tesla driving loser boyfriend. Tagging along with Eddie throughout most of the story is the pint-sized Connor (Raphael Alejandro); older guys call him “Fetus” but he more identifies with Joe Pesci’s character from Goodfellas. And the trio are at the whim of their semi-friend and commiserating underclassmen loser Koosh (Bardia Seiri), whose older brother is the real host of the party, all while Koosh creepily searches for his sexual target like a despicable drone pilot. It’s supposed to be the biggest night of their lives, at least until tomorrow inevitably comes.

Incoming abides by the classic three act story structure, and because all of the characters outside of Benj are written by fine point mechanical pencils while he’s scribbled in permanent marker, there’s really only so much earth that can be dug up from this empty plot before it has to pull a Holes and start digging the same dimensions elsewhere. And that’s exactly what the movie frustratingly does. It turns a little gravel here, jumps to a different spot, digs some more, and bounces around from here and there and back again for more than an hour like a script with no anchor. Great films of the high school genre have pace and build. Incoming settles for the freshman effort and delivers everything like a whirlwind. It’s rousing and energetic but never resonating or solid on its feet.

Despite all of my valid criticisms of the film, Incoming is a movie made with lots of heart, and I can easily envision a future where brothers John and Dave Chernin (who both  supposedly based this film on their own experiences) use the growing pains from this feature to make something more grounded and rounded next time out; in many ways it feels like a slightly lesser than Sex Drive. And while the loser teacher nearly accidentally offing himself and the pretty girl having explosive drunk diarrhea certainly elicit visceral responses, they’re still as transitory as a story looking to be something more substantial. I’m eager to see how the filmmaking duo approach their next project. Hopefully it’s with a little more focus, finesse, and a lot more chill. The sophomore effort is bound to be better. Or at least one would hope so.

“The coolest thing you can do is be yourself.”

Rating: 2.5 out of 5