Netflix has a new number one movie - and it's a teen comedy throwback

There’s a new number one movie on Netflix, and it’s the kind of film you don’t see too often in cinemas anymore.

Incoming is the top Netflix film in the US right now. It hasn’t managed to quite push The Union, starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, into the background globally yet. But given its relative lack of star power, this new comedy is doing A-OK.

Its top-line synopsis is also more like the kind of thing we used to see in the 2000s and early 2010s than today.

“Incoming is the story of one night in the life of a group of high school freshmen, the party they crash, and the chaos that ensues,” the official blurb reads.

The film stars Mason Thames, Ramon Reed and Raphael Alejandro as our trio of freshmen students, bumbling their way through the first year of college.

Like many of the original movies of this style from decades past, Incoming hasn’t picked up entirely stellar reviews from critics. But they don’t all pan the film either.

The Roger Ebert website gave Incoming a strong 3/4 review, saying “the jokes are funny (sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny), mostly because they’re unafraid to rattle a little—a quality that many recent comedies overeager to pander to the audience inauthentically can learn a thing or two from.”

Ready Steady Cut gave the film a solid 3/5 review. “Despite the lack of shock factor, Incoming is held up by its comedy. The use of the young lead actors works well. It’s full of energy,” says the review.

Dig deeper and you’ll find plenty of critics who say Incoming isn’t funny, that it’s just plain bad or unoriginal. But R-rated comedies like this don’t exactly come around every day.

Incoming is from writer-director brothers Dave and John Chernin, who were part of the writing team on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

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