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A living soul on the lonely planet wrote on 01/01/2010:

The movie is absolutely beautiful. The acting is very good and the story line in engaging. Low budget film, indeed, but it will give you a grinning smile, a luagh and a few drop of tear(at least in my case). In summary, this is one of very feel good gay movies that you should have in your DVD collection. Strongly recommended. By the way, Jason Van Eman stars as a military man. He is hearthrobbingly cute.

Tempestuous Journey wrote on 02/17/2009:

I have to agree in part with both the bad and good reviews. This is a syrupy sweet movie. The plot can be summed up in a few sentences. It was a bit drawn out for so short a plot. Some great ideas for a story that with a bigger budget, better dialogue, and more "fleshed" out characters would improve the film. The characters were really sweet, but too sweet for realism. The mentally challenged boy was more intuned to the feelings the main two characters had for one another than they were, which wasn't very realistic. You can say the acting was lacking, but I blame it more on the script. The production values were low, but for the cost and the amount of time it took to shoot it, I believe the film was pretty good. You do have to be forgiving in low budget indie films. Any sweeter a film and I would have expected Mr. Rogers to be their neighbor. I thought Ronnie was kind of cute and the characters reminded me of when I was in Middle School. As much as I wanted to see some skin with Ronnie, I know that the film wouldn't be realistic with too much titalation due to the extreme innocence of all three characters. However, after the sex scene that was skipped altogether in filming, it looked odd that they were cuddled up together by the fireplace in post coidal bliss fully clothed. It's an endearing low budget film that you could see over again when you are in the mood for those sweet syrupy happy endings trying to avoid the reality of how jaded people usually are. The special feature of the reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas gives you an example of how simple minded the characters are, and in my opinion was a bit too much. I would watch the film again during the times when I want to feel like a sweet little boy again. I don't always feel like being jaded.

Joe Reviewer wrote on 04/24/2008:

I wish I had the time some people have to write 5-page reviews, hammering on movies, but I don't. This movie is just what it is, heartfelt and cozy. Three guys, good acting, real-life story about friendship and secrets. Fun Commentary by cast and director. Actually a decent movie. So there.

gay movie viewer wrote on 06/06/2007:

You never know with a gay independent film if you will love it or hate it. The reviews for this film seem evenly split both ways. I took a chance and ordered it, assuming that I would either fall into the camp that loved it or side with those who hated it. I am sorry to report that I belong to the group that utterly loathed it. In retrospect, if find it odd that nobody seemed to fall in the middle, which causes me to suspect that some of the rave reviews that prompted me to purchase it were planted here by friends of the cast or its creators. Either that or they are as mentally challenged as the character of Johnny is supposed to be. Thank goodness I had a dose of insulin at the ready.

One the reviewers I read at another site rehashed the entire plot in one paragraph, and he seemed to pay as much attention to detail as the screenwriter did. I have nothing against low budget – I have seen more than my share of poorly-financed gay films that I genuinely enjoyed. But I’m afraid that Regarding Billy hit a big ten on my barf meter. I might have liked it better had it not been so emotionally manipulative. Shortly into the second scene, the music swells and one of the characters suddenly begins to sniffle, a prelude to the spectacle of watching a grown man burst into tears. Throughout the entire film, whenever one of the three characters is about to start bawling, we are warned of the coming storm by snatches of bad soundtrack that sound like it’s left over from Brian’s Song or Love Story. This cheap mechanism is repeated several times throughout the film, and the director seemed to think nothing of using this method to shamelessly manipulate the audience’s emotions, not once, not twice, but multiple times during the proceedings.

Then again, I may have been more satisfied with Regarding Billy had the wafer-thin plot not been drawn out way too much, even for a film that barely ran seventy minutes. The two lead characters are supposed to be best friends of many years, each concealing and bearing the dreaded secret that he is in love with the other. When it came time for the big revelation (about sixty-eight minutes overdue), and one of the actors grabbed the other to plant a kiss on his mouth, I frankly thought I was going to puke. Then again, I may have been more impressed if all three characterizations had not come across as so phony – each appears to be trying to outdo the other two in the “nice guy” department, trading sappy lines and oozing charm and good-nature, despite one poorly-written excuse for crocodile tears after another. “Gee, Dean, I guess this is about the best Christmas tree light display ever”. “Yeah, buddy, it sure is”. Does anybody think that people really talk like this? I might have been able to stand the phony sweetness had it been confined to one scene, but each new camera angle seemed to proffer but one of two moods; sickeningly sweet, or melodramatically melancholy. And each bit of dialogue as phony as the last.

I wasted a very long hour and ten minutes of my life watching Regarding Billy, not to mention about 45 seconds on the overly-sweet, poorly done reading of “The Night Before Christmas” included as the special feature – thank goodness I reached for the remote and stopped that one quick, as soon as I felt the bile rising in my stomach. To give you an idea of this thoughtfully included extra, let’s just say that the least able of the three dramatically challenged actors reads the celebrated Clement Clarke Moore poem in its entirety, while the other two look profoundly embarrassed. This film has now earned its spot as third on my list of the three worst gay movies ever made, falling just after Visions of Sugar Plums (DREADFUL, and possibly the second-worst gay movie ever made) and Ben and Arthur (still #1 on my list of gay films deserving the Ed Wood Award).

Of course, I haven’t yet wasted all my resources on badly-written, poorly acted and ineptly directed independent gay vehicles. So let it suffice to say that Regarding Billy is merely the third worst gay movie that I’ve seen, and let it go at that.

Rent or purchase Regarding Billy at your own risk.

maskbear wrote on 02/17/2007:

This is one of the sweetest, most touching movies I have ever seen. Even with its production flaws, which aren't many considering that the director/producer only spent $20,000 to make it in a 2 week period. The actors are amazing. All three. First, Jack Sway is very convincing at the mentally challenged brother, Johnny. He sees the real relationship that exists between Dean and Billy way before they have the opportunity or courage to come out. Johnny is just pure love. Love is the theme of this movie and as the film develops the love between Dean and Billy becomes so real that you can feel it physically. It's a love expressed that soothes one's heart. Watch closely how Jason Van Eman and Ronnie Kerr playing Dean and Billy use touch and small gestures to express that love. You have to wonder if they did develop feelings for one another during the filming. The nuances are just so natural. If you are a hopeless romantic like myself please rent this movie. You will never regret it and probably fall in love with it.