Director: Alex Pillai
Writers: Alexander J. Farrell, Greer Ellison
Stars: Charithra Chandran, Sebastian Croft, Tanner Buchanan
Synopsis: Follows a pair of childhood friends: Amelia and Archie. Archie has always kept his love for her a secret, but just as he builds up the courage to declare his feelings, Amelia falls for Billy Walsh, the new transfer student.
The new Prime Video romantic comedy How to Date Billy Walsh is amiable enough—even affable. However, the problem with director Alex Pillai’s (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) film is that it never separates itself from the countless entries in the young adult genre. The film lacks the sense of the characters’ lives continuing beyond the movie’s end, nor does it provide a satisfying enough conclusion to cater to its audience.
Which, frankly, makes me think, “You had one job!” I imagine Digman would tell the director, “I’m the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.” Hey, if anything, I’ve learned that when you have a chance to work on a quote from The Departed, you take it.
How to Date Billy Walsh follows the story of two lifelong childhood friends, Amelia (Alex Rider’s Charithra Chandran) and Archie (Heartstopper’s Sebastian Croft). Amelia has been the apple of Archie’s eye for quite some time, but he has difficulty declaring his feelings for her. Despite numerous awkward moments, it’s hard to believe Amelia has no clue. As an adolescent, right before he was going to confess his love, Archie panics and tells Amelia that he is gay, which may explain her obliviousness.
Much of the script focuses on Amelia’s tragic backstory. She lost her mom to cancer at a young age and is being raised by her father (The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar), who is seeing a new woman. Amelia struggles to give her a chance, haunted by her mother’s advice to find happiness and pursue it. That’s when Billy Walsh (Max Winslow and the House of Secrets’s Tanner Buchanan) enters her life.
Billy is a classic cliche in the YA movie genre, with flowing hair and a leather jacket, strutting into her new school as the new transfer. Of course, subverting a trope becomes a cliche in itself. He’s a loner, but kind and always carries a book in his pocket to read at a moment’s notice. (Billy is essentially Jess Mariano without the attitude and excessive hair product.) Naturally, Amelia, like every other girl in life, is taken with him.
The script from Greer Ellison (Butterfly Kisses) and Alexander J. Farrell (Refugee) borrows a storytelling device from Cyrano de Bergerac. Archie pretends to be a love guru but disguises himself using an aging app. His advice to Amelia backfires, leading to mishaps like darkening her eyebrows or dressing like a Catholic schoolgirl before being rescued by a car smaller than a grocery cart.
The script needs a more balanced tone, which the director is responsible for not rectifying. There are some weird, out-of-place musical numbers, and physical comedy gags that raise eyebrows. For instance, in a song, an underage student smacks the rear end of an older adult teacher, making the juxtaposition uncomfortable and certainly not funny. The subplot of Croft’s Archie advising Chandran’s Amelie is cheesy and abandoned too quickly, which would have given the comedy more structure, which it desperately needs.
While the film struggles with its love triangle, I found the father-and-daughter relationship between Nayyar and Chandran sweet, with notes of melancholy. The movie would have benefited greatly by making Amelie the central character, with Billy and Archie moving to the background while exploring Amelie’s trauma of childhood abandonment and grief.
This adjustment would connect with her inability to show interest in healthier relationships and give the narrative greater depth. That includes looking at the film through a specific cultural lens, which would be far more interesting. How to Date Billy Walsh had no chance of reinventing the wheel but failed to complete its ordinary YA structure, which it strives for. Pillai’s film is too schizophrenic when it comes to its story, tone, and themes because of its lack of coherence and consistency.
And that’s a shame because this nice young cast does everything they can with the material provided for them.
