The Perfect Neighbor
A tragedy documented by police bodycam footage is a favourite to win the Oscar next month.
A Karen in the neighbourhood: Susan Louise Lorincz.
Photo courtesy of Netflix.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
On June 2 in 2023, the sheriff department of Marion County, Florida, received a 911 call from a 58-year-old woman living on her own. In obvious distress, she stuttered, “There are several kids outside. I’m fearing for my life. I’m very scared. I don’t like the kids threatening me that they’ll beat me up, that they’re going to get someone to kill me.” The voice belonged to Susan Louise Lorincz, who had previously made numerous calls to the police about the kids running riot on her property, threatening her and generally making her life hell. We know what she said, because Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary has had full access to police records, phone calls, CCTV material and bodycam footage, supplied to her by lawyers. Then, seconds later, the police receive another call from the same street, saying that somebody has been shot.
A mosaic of largely bodycam footage, sometimes blurry and sometimes tilted, the film proceeds without conventional narration or explanation, in the tradition of such notable non-fiction works as Our Daily Bread and Apollo 11. What we don’t know is what footage was withheld, but the story that The Perfect Neighbor relates is one of conflicting reports, attitudes and perspectives as a domestic situation gets dramatically out of hand, amounting to what is a penetrating portrait of America today, with its poverty, racism and issues of mental health. The police officers themselves, who make numerous visits to the front door of Susan Lorincz, come off as invariably polite, reasonable and level-headed (after all, these are not ICE agents benefitting from financial incentives). One officer, fearing that the children’s playfulness so close to Susan’s front door might be upsetting the old woman, suggested that they would be better off indoors on TikTok.
With its warm weather and grassy open spaces, the environs of the city of Ocala, Florida, is actually a perfect place for young kids to play and to enjoy their childhood. It is Susan’s claustrophobia and sense of persecution, locked away behind a windowless front door, that is to be discouraged. In fact, it is her self-confessed medication and paranoia that are the antagonists of this story. This, in fact, is the American nightmare – in which neighbours squabble and some of them have firearms…
With the advance of bodycam technology (some of the images are actually surprisingly high-res), The Perfect Neighbor heralds a new kind of documentary. The question is whether or not police footage can be manipulated, or that such frequently grainy, scattershot material is worthy of a full-length feature documentary. But with its release on Netflix, which increasingly blurs the line between the theatrical and home-viewing experience, Gandbhir’s film perhaps fits in neatly with the dashcam drama of many current reality TV shows. However, its nomination for a best documentary Oscar surely rests more on its subject matter than for its craft or skill of storytelling.
Featuring Ajike Owens, Susan Louise Lorincz.
Dir Geeta Gandbhir, Pro Alisa Payne, Geeta Gandbhir, Nikon Kwantu and Sam Bisbee, Additional Ph Alfredo Del Lara, Ed Viridiana Lieberman, Music Laura Heinzinger, Sound Laura Heinzinger.
Message Pictures/Park Pictures/SO'B Productions-Netflix.
97 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 17 October 2025. Cert. 15.
