New Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor is now available to stream, and it’s completely different from every other documentary movie we’ve seen on the platform. Why? It only uses police bodycam footage.
No VTs, no interviews after the fact, and no injected narrative by editors or directors. Only raw footage being played in chronological order to tell a harrowing story. The Perfect Neighbor begins in 2023, following disputes between neighbors Ajike “AJ” Shantrell Owens and Susan Lorincz in Ocala, Florida.
I was lucky enough to see the Netflix movie back in January, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Even aside from the horrific and devastating story at its core (more on that later), I think the new documentary‘s structure could change the way we consume content for good.
Why you need to stream The Perfect Neighbor on Netflix this weekend
Spoilers for The Perfect Neighbor below.
As you can see from the above trailer, Lorincz ignites neighbor disputes by repeatedly calling the cops on a group of children who are playing on the grass opposite her house. The land isn’t technically owned by any one resident, but Lorincz claims it’s part of her property (this is key to understanding how things escalate).
Some of the children in question belong to Owens, who lives across the road from Lorincz. The calls from Lorincz get more frequent, which causes more tension, and as one police officer puts it, “There doesn’t need to be a call for service every time there are kids playing in the yard.”
It’s an incredibly fair comment, but Lorincz persists. Then, fatality, as surrounding neighbors hear a shot coming from Lorincz’s house. She shot and killed Owens, with the way she did prompting a dilemma for police thanks to Florida’s ‘stand-your-ground’ law. Netflix does a much better job of explaining what that means than I ever could, I promise.
There’s also another aspect of the case I haven’t fully introduced – Lorincz is white, while Owens and her children are black. Racial discrimination is a huge part of community tension between Lorincz and basically everybody else, sparking outrage from Civil Rights activists as the film progresses.
Owens has an incredibly touching family memorial that we get to see (it’s worth pointing out that some of her children saw her die) and you cannot help but feel overwhelmingly distraught about the outcome of an argument that never needed to be brought to the police, never mind resulting in someone’s death.
The Perfect Neighbor has already been dubbed as ‘revolutionary,’ and I’ll happily agree to that. Owens’ family wants its Netflix release to create change, and it would be outrageous if that didn’t happen.
There’s something so raw about the lack of added narrative that often comes with edited documentaries, and it’s incredibly effective. Not only do you have to put the pieces together, but Owen’s story tells itself without being pigeonholed into a commercial binge.
It’s destroying, powerful, and a sign that we can change how true crime consumption looks. I’d rather see facts presented to us as they are rather than people’s past trauma being filmed for entertainment, and hopefully, the tide turns now.
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jasmine.valentine@futurenet.com (Jasmine Valentine)
