How to Date Billy Walsh

Directed by Alex Pillai, "How to Date Billy Walsh" attempts to bring a fresh twist to the high school romantic drama genre but ultimately falls short of making a lasting impression. The film follows the story of a young nerd who finds himself in a love triangle with his childhood best friend and a charismatic bad boy.

While the inclusion of an interracial love angle adds a unique element to the narrative, the film struggles to offer anything truly original. Instead, it relies on tired clichés and predictable plot twists that fail to engage the audience. Despite a few fleeting moments that may entertain on platforms like Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts, the movie as a whole lacks substance.

The cast, including Sebastian Croft, Charithra Chandran, Tanner Buchanan, and Kunal Nayyar, does little to elevate the material. Their performances feel uninspired, with limited opportunity to showcase their talents in a meaningful way.

Overall, "How to Date Billy Walsh" is a forgettable addition to the rom-com genre. Despite its attempts to inject new life into familiar tropes, the film ultimately falls flat, leaving viewers longing for something more substantial and memorable.

I really wanted to like this. The movie has a great cast and, to give them their due, the weakness isn't in the cast performance here, they do a great job with the dire material they have to work with.

There's nothing new or original about the story. It's a poor British attempt to replicate an American high school movie trope that has been told a thousand times. I'm unsure how you can remake a movie that has been made so many times before yet get it so wrong.

I get that the design of the film is supposed to be slightly off the wall, but it borders on cartoonesque. If it not for the occasional swear word or discussion of sex toys, this could be an episode of any Nickelodeon or Disney show.

The characters, writing and story is all paper thin.

I'm really unsure who the audience is for this, it's too adult in content for the tween audience, it's too immature for older young adults, it doesn't have the sarcasm or self-awareness to please an older audience.

This film has such a good cast, actors from shows like Heartstopper, Bridgerton, The Big Bang Theory plus Nick Frost bumbling around is background for some unexplained reason. Is he the chauffeur? Why is Nick Frost the chauffeur? Has he done something wrong which means he can't be the star of a film anymore? In addition, the sets are stunning, the music is good, they clearly haven't penny punched while making this film. It's such a shame that the result is so much less than the sum of its parts. The result is a chaotic, rushed mess of a film with far too much breaking of the fourth wall and one of those relationships where you're supposed to believe two people are perfect for each other but they end up hurting each other because they can't be honest with each other. Honesty is the basis of a good relationship, I'm never going to root for a couple who only obstacle is their inability to tell each other they love one another.

" How to Date Billy Walsh " is a fun movie. It involves witty dialogue, and the classic trope of a love triangle between three teenagers.

However, it was... hard to watch to say the least.

The main character, Archie, is crude and hard to sympathize with. It's hard to believe that he actually cares for Millie with all of the horrible things he does throughout the movie. The only interesting characterization he has is when he speaks to the audience, and that gets old fast.

The titular Billy Walsh is supposed to be an American bad boy that the English girls swoon over. While his accent is lovely, his character is bland and flat. He has no other personality traits, or motives, behind any of his options. His use in the story is just to be a "foil" to Archie, and that is made clear.

Millie, the girl next door, and Archie's best friend, is the worst characterized out of all of them. Her purpose is to just be in love with whoever it calls for in the movie. She's bland, like a manic pixie dream girl but watered down. While she has a motivation, her mother, it fails to bring any substance to her character.

The movie's plot was boring and overdone, but no idea is original. I could excuse the overdone plot for interesting characters, motives, or really anything of interest. However, we're only met with the same predictable plot twists and endings.

This is a fun movie if you put the cringey moments and poor characterization aside. While I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, it's a nice movie if you've already watched all of Netflix's catalogue.

I think watchers took it literally. Especially the overdone tropes and the storyline we have seen a million times. If I went into it expecting to watch a "serious" romcom I would leave disappointed but in the same breath the direction the movie was going to take was very clear in the first few minutes and from there it was easy to figure out that it is not going to be as "serious" as one would like it to be.

The exaggeration of the popular tropes and characteristics of the mean girl and her clique, the cool boy, the athletes, and the less popular came off as deliberate, and to me that served as comedic relief rather than actually being bad. I had a lot of "laugh out loud" moments where it was really funny and I liked that the movie carried that same comedic aspect throughout and up until the end as opposed to dropping it mid-movie like most romcoms do. The exaggeration and over-dramatization of these characters and the events that take place IS what makes it funny. It's almost as though the movie was taking a dig at all the worn out highschool romcom tropes.

I really believe that changing your perspective will heavily influence your viewing experience. If you take all the cringy scenes and worn-out concepts and see that they were deliberate and not meant to be taken literally you will have a pleasurable viewing experience.

It was a lighthearted and funny watch. I would recommend it.