Five Netflix movies to watch if you loved ‘Best of the Best’
If Fridays with Netflix are yet to become a thing, well, they better trademark it because they do bring the blockbuster energy every week without a miss.
While the streaming giant goes above and beyond pretty much every day, the Friday roster comes second to none, and Best of the Best is proof.
The coming-of-age dance-comedy drama stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia as two childhood best friends who enter the cutthroat, competitive world of UCLA’s Bollywood dance-fusion, without realising the stakes. Although that friction and tension bring just the Friday package fans usually seek, the guilty-pleasure streak doesn’t necessarily have to end with the movie itself.
So, if you’re planning a proper Friday marathon that bleeds into the night binge session, here are five Netflix movies to binge after Best of the Best.
Five Netflix movies to stream after Best of the Best
Work It (Laura Terruso, 2020)
Work It is probably the most direct follow-up to Best of the Best on Netflix, so a post-watch party without it is as good as null.
The 2020 dance comedy drama follows Quinn Ackerman, an academic prodigy whose admission to her dream college, Duke University, hangs by a thread as she’s required to showcase an impressive extracurricular dance achievement. Since she literally lacks rhythm, her school dance team is the first to give a reality check: rejection!
But determined to convince the interviewer and desperate for admission to Duke University, Quinn decides to lie, claiming she’s the star dancer of her school team. While that’s more like throwing your entire existence under the bus for an aspirational future, Quinn and her best friend Jasmine form a brand-new dance group of school outcasts to add some weight to her story. Work It centres on Quinn’s desperate efforts to win the competition by hook or crook.
Step Sisters (Charles Stone III, 2018)
Another quintessential addition to Best of the Best’s post-watch party is Step Sisters, directed by Charles Stone III. The dance-comedy drama centres on Jamilah, a college senior with larger-than-life dreams, a sorority leader and formidable step dancer who wants nothing more than a Harvard Law School acceptance letter.
But her dream is unexpectedly threatened when an inappropriate, controversial video involving a white sorority house on campus goes viral, putting the university’s reputation at stake. To secure her letter, Jamilah unwillingly agrees to help with damage control, but in order to truly salvage the situation, she has to teach the rhythmically challenged sorority sisters the art of Greek step dancing and prepare them for an upcoming regional competition.
Step Sisters follows Jamilah on an unlikely journey as she unknowingly steps up to bridge a massive cultural and social divide, managing clashing personalities while trying to safeguard her own future.
Senior Year (Alex Hardcastle, 2022)
Directed by Alex Hardcastle in his directorial debut, Senior Year shares the high-stakes performance energy, competitive DNA, cutthroat school dynamics, and feel-good comedy vibes with Best of the Best, albeit with a heavy dose of 2000s nostalgia.
The Netflix comedy drama follows 37-year-old Stephanie Conway, who was once 17 and the ultimate high-school achiever as the cheerleader captain who not only dated the star quarterback but also was preparing to become prom queen.
But accidents happen, and one such accident robbed her of winning the prom queen crown, leaving her comatose for 20 years. When Stephanie wakes up two decades later, her mental age and mindset are just as they were when she was a teenager, and, as a result, devastated about missing her final academic year. Senior Year captures Stephanie on an unlikely journey as she decides to re-enrol and snatch the prom queen title.
Feel the Beat (Elissa Down, 2020)
If you loved the journey to the championship in Best of the Best, Feel the Beat is a dance comedy that will definitely hit home during your post-viewing session.
The dance-comedy drama centres on a selfish Broadway dancer, April Dibrina, who steps on her toes and ruins her big break in the ‘Big Apple’ by stealing a cab in a heavy rainstorm, oblivious that the person on the other end is a powerful theatre sponsor named Ruth Zimmer. To make things worse, she accidentally knocks Ruth off the stage, and upon identifying who she really is, she’s evicted.
Broke and devastated, April is forced to return to her small Wisconsin hometown, where she moves back in with her father. Once there, she’s invited by her old dance teacher to groom a group of misfits, an offer she initially rejects, but the minute she realises that the judge is a Broadway producer, true to her self-centred nature, she takes up the job.
Metal Lords (Peter Sollett, 2022)
Lastly, if you’re particularly attracted to the idea of a ragtag school team pushing through internal friction to win a championship in Best of the Best, Metal Lords is the way to wrap up the feeling. The film follows high school outcasts Kevin Schlieb and Hunter Sylvester as they try to form a heavy metal band to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands, and as a passionate metalhead guitarist, Hunter recruits Kevin to join him.
But they’re still missing a suitable bass player who is as dedicated to the genre. However, during their recruitment process, Kevin stumbles into Emily, a prodigious cello player who’s emotionally vulnerable and struggles with anger management.
Metal Lords revolves around the tense dynamics that develop within the group after Hunter rejects Emily, leading to a major fallout between two best friends.