The Perfect Neighbor review: Bodycam and CCTV footage make up for a harrowing true crime documentary that is a must-see
The Perfect Neighbor review: Director Geeta Gandhbir expertly uses police bodycam footage to tell this devastating true story of an avoidable tragedy.
This one story of a neighbourhood Karen in a Florida community does not include anything remotely funny. The new Netflix release, The Perfect Neighbor, which marks the feature directorial debut for Geeta Gandbhir, is an incredibly tough watch. It chronicles the aftermath of the killing of Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens, a black woman and a mother of four, being fatally shot by her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz, over a seemingly minor dispute.
The premise
Consisting almost entirely of police bodycam and CCTV footage, this is an incredibly powerful piece of filmmaking- one that revisits the scene and, in turn, reignites the question of a broken legal system that remains unsupervised. Gandbir lets the real footage do all the talking. Susan has been the only woman in the neighbourhood who keeps calling the police. The kids are trespassing, they are playing, making noise, threatening her… she always has her reasons. We witness it in real time.
We see faces- some blurred- of victims, witnesses, up-close camera angles, the rough exchanges when police officers arrive upon a call, the harsh red lights, and the tense exchanges that follow with the officers. “That lady is always messing with people’s kids,” one of the neighbours tells the police about Susan. Some of them perhaps know they are being recorded, and some of them don't, but the point is, it all happens in a series of events that tell the viewer how this violent tragedy could have been avoided.
What works
There is an inherent sense of dread that builds up as Viridiana Lieberman's searing editing work first introduces the viewer to the tragedy and then takes them back to witness how things changed between Susan and the neighbourhood. The calls became more and more erratic and irrational, where the incredibly tight Black community were left aghast at this woman's incessant complaints and threats.
When tragedy strikes, The Perfect Neighbor becomes a shocking reminder of a society that lets it happen in plain sight. To think that it was the perpetrator who called the police here. The irony. The breadcrumbs of racism were as plain as daylight. The cause for the "Stand Your Ground" laws, which arrive later in the doc, stitches the last bits of consideration in this case. Without spelling things out from an outsider's point of view or taking first-person interviews on the subject, Gandbhir simply shows what is already there.
There is not a single third-person recount of what transpired in 2023 in this documentary to manipulate the viewer towards any standpoint. This is as real as it gets, the way everyday racism seeps into the cracks, to offer nothing but a bleak picture of America in a nutshell, racked with a messed-up legal system. The effect is unforgettable.
As harrowing and bleak as this documentation is, The Perfect Neighbor offers a brilliant showcase for Gandbhir's efforts. This could have very well been a different film without the piercing intelligence of the choices on display here. Gandbhir trusts the material, but above all, she trusts the viewer to catch hold of the dangerous heart of the story, to the underlying context and see, frame by frame, the fatal consequences of neglect.
