On Jan. 16, the free streaming app Tubi added another original young adult romantic comedy to its catalog with the release of “How to Lose a Popularity Contest.” Directed by Stephen S. Campanelli, this film delivered nothing but secondhand embarrassment for viewers.

“How to Lose a Popularity Contest” follows overachiever Ellie Pearse (Sara Waisglass) while she orchestrates a student body presidential campaign for popular boy Nate Reed (Chase Hudson), who also happens to be her archnemesis. By doing this, she hopes to prove her leadership skills to vice principal Everdeen (Ecstasia Sanders) and to get back at her ex–boyfriend, Rowan (Graham Verchere). While her plan also included ruining Nate’s reputation, she finds herself regretting the scheme after befriending Nate, and then seeing him as more than just friends.

Everything about this film was predictable, from the uptight nerdy girl doing anything she can to get into an Ivy League — one she does not end up going to because she “found” herself — to the party boy with a “secret” sensitive side. It felt less like a storyline and more like a checklist of how many cliche rom-com elements could fit into one film before it got to be too much. Spoiler alert, it was too much.

“How to Lose a Popularity Contest” writers Dorian Keyes and Kaitlin Reilly provided viewers a plethora of unintentionally quotable moments as a result of their deficient writing. The acting did not help the poorly written script, leaving the funny moments up to the less than impressive writing and awkward line delivery. 

If the goal was to make Ellie Pearse as insufferable as possible, Waisglass excelled with her performance. Not only was her character the epitome of a nerdy “pick-me,” someone who seeks approval, typically from men, but she also was a horrible friend to every person who tried to show her an ounce of support. These character flaws made it difficult for viewers to feel for her when something did not go her way. In fact, it was hard to avoid the idea that Ellie had gotten exactly what she deserved. While she did go through some character development, it was not present until the last 10 minutes of the movie. Even then, it felt like she was righting what was wrong to make herself feel better.

Unlike Ellie, Nate’s character development is clear throughout the film. He stopped referring to Ellie by her middle school nickname (Max, short for Maxi Pad), got comfortable showing his drawings off and even started caring about Ellie more than he cared about his previous girlfriend Quinn (Lillian Doucet-Roche). Amidst all his character’s growth, it was hard to separate Hudson from his claim to fame as a TikTok star with the TikTok group, The Hype House. This, along with Hudson’s terrible acting choices made it almost impossible to focus on his character’s improvements. 

Another element this film lacked was tasteful inclusivity. While there was a lesbian couple prominent in the movie, one of them was the inconsiderate director of the school’s play and the other was the person who unveiled Ellie’s plan, ultimately pitting Nate against Ellie. While this couple was not the main focus of the film, it did distract viewers away from the actual plot. So while the inclusion was there, it felt forced and landed the movie amongst the others with inadequate LGBTQ+ representation in the media.

Despite the marks “How to Lose a Popularity Contest” did not hit, viewers still found themselves intrigued by the so-bad-it’s-good allure of this film, similar to that of other Tubi originals. It’s safe to say this film certainly fits right into the Tubi rom-com universe.