New movie How to Date Billy Walsh was released on April 5 on Prime Video. Featuring actors from chart-topping Netflix originals, this British high school rom-com will make you laugh and keep you entertained…if you don’t take it too seriously.
The film follows Archie (Heartstopper’s Sebastian Croft) who is in love with his childhood best friend Amelia (Bridgerton’s Charithra Chandran). He has a plan to tell her how he feels, until American transfer student Billy (Cobra Kai’s Tanner Buchanan) arrives and has every girl in school falling head over heels for him – including Amelia.
She enlists the help of a “Love Doctor” in hopes that Billy will requite her feelings, which has Archie deciding to use an AI app to play the part of the aforementioned Love Doctor. Amelia dutifully follows his advice, without knowing that she is really listening to Archie who is motivated by his desperate need to keep Amelia close and prevent her from dating Billy.
Eventually, after the expected ups and downs that Archie’s plan provides, Amelia realizes her true feelings and shortly thereafter finds out that Archie was pretending to be the Love Doctor.
Archie must justify why he did what he did in order to have any chance with Amelia. Will the friends-to-lovers trope work out in our protagonist’s favor? Watch to find out and see Maisie Peters perform at a school dance.
All in all, the film wasn’t groundbreaking and won’t win any Oscars for best writing. But if you’re looking for a fun young adult romance with fourth-wall breaks and a good cast, this is a movie for you.
Freshman Emily Myers is a Staff Writer. Her email is emyers3@fandm.edu.