Best of the Best (review)

Published by Mason Oldridge, 29 September 2026

Netflix’s latest film takes the form of a teen comedy drama centred around dance.

Childhood best friends Maya and Anjali start at UCLA and join the university’s Bollywood-fusion dance team UCLA Agni, which causes tension in their friendship.

First of all, the film honours South Asian culture within America respectfully. Casting Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as co-lead proves to be a strong choice as she previously led the cast in Never Have I Ever, which represented Indian-American multiculturalism in a positive light. Other actors of South Asian heritage round out the cast. Furthermore, a majority of the production staff are also of a South Asian background.

Maya and Anjali’s relationship becomes strained, primarily because Anjali is attracted to group leader Ronak, but Maya clashes with him over creative differences. As the film progresses, this eventually boils over into a heated confrontation between the two friends as Maya’s insecurities come to light, which Anjali realises upon looking back at memories. Fortunately, the film concludes with the friends reconciling and the group winning the national competition.

However, the film succumbs to a simplistic plot. It is fairly easy to see which direction it is heading in and how things will end up, offering up no curveballs or originality and making the film somewhat boring as it loses its grip on its own entertainment value.

The film may treat its cultural representation with sensitivity and provide the necessary conflict in order to deliver a satisfactory resolution, though ultimately suffers at the hands of its basic and predictable narrative.

6/10