How To Date Billy Walsh Is The Future of Gen-Z Rom-Coms

Amelia (Charithra Chandran) and Archie (Sebastian Croft) have been best friends since they were born. Secretly, Archie has always loved Amelia, but when he finally builds up the courage to share his feelings, she falls for the new American transfer student Billy Walsh (Tanner Buchanan). Archie’s attempts at keeping Billy and Amelia apart only ends up pushing them closer together in How To Date Billy Walsh.

How To Date Billy Walsh follows the fourth wall breaking 2000s coming of age romantic comedy elements perfectly while also integrating more modern advancements. From AI to social media, this film is one of the first to integrate new tech into the story without it feeling intensely fake or out of touch. It doesn’t overuse current slang that will fall in popularity within a few months, but rather leans into the attitudes around modern dating as a teen. How To Date Billy Walsh leans into the digital aspects that make dating as a teen so complicated today. This movie has elite soundtrack choices for their younger audience, including a Maisie Peters cameo. It’s a bit over the top at times, but, if you don’t take it seriously, you’ll have a good time.

At face value, this movie doesn’t offer much newness other than its digital modernization of classic romantic comedy elements. Many of the characters fall into overdone and overdramatic tropes, which feels at home in the high school setting when emotions run high and your identity is boiled down to one or two traits. In terms of chemistry, the audience never truly knows why Archie loves Amelia as much as he does. This lack of connection makes the story feel a bit diluted and hard to invest in as an audience.

Sebastian Croft, as Archie, narrates the entire film in a cheeky fourth wall breaking way that is reminiscent of that in Fleabag. His charm is missed a bit as he takes on a hidden identity as a romantic therapist to coach Amelia. His solo work is comical and charismatic, but gets lost as the comedic elements lack cohesion.

This is a rom-com that the younger generation will find to be the most realistic and relatable take that the genre has seen in a long time. It’s a feel good movie that isn’t to be taken seriously.

How to Date Billy Walsh is streaming on Prime Video.