The Perfect Neighbor is a 2025 American documentary film, directed and produced by Geeta Gandbhir. It follows the killing of Ajike Owens, told through police bodycam footage, exploring the neighborhood disputes that led to the killing.
The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, where it won the Directing Award.[2][3] It had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on October 10, prior to streaming globally on Netflix on October 17. It received widespread acclaim for its production, direction and editing.
Premise
On June 2, 2023, in Ocala, Florida, Ajike "AJ" Shantrell Owens was shot and killed by Susan Lorincz. The film explores disputes leading up to the shooting by using bodycam footage.[4] It includes footage from a selection of the multiple times that deputies from the Marion County Sheriff's Office responded to: calls from Lorincz in 2022 and 2023; a call from an auto repair operator in March 2023, after Lorincz repeatedly rammed her pickup truck into the gate at his workplace; a visit by Lorincz to report her complaints in person at the Sheriff's Office in May 2023; the multiple 911 calls, including from Lorincz, when she shot Owens on June 2 2023; and Lorincz being questioned by Sheriff's detectives at the station. Sheriff's Office footage from the next few days, such as Lorincz retrieving items from her house, and from her further interviews at the Sheriff's Office, is included.
Production
The victim, Ajike Owens, was the best friend of director Geeta Gandbhir's sister-in-law. Concerned that Susan Lorincz would use the stand-your-ground law, Gandbhir's partner and fellow producer Nikon Kwantu went to Florida and began documenting and filming the case.[5][6]
Release
The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2025.[2][3] It also screened at South by Southwest on March 9, 2025.[7][8] In February 2025, Netflix was reportedly in final negotiations to acquire the film for $5 million.[9][10] The deal was finalized in March 2025, with Netflix planning to release the documentary later that year.[11] It later went live on Netflix in October of 2025, where it held the position of most watched movie in the U.S. within days of its release. Soledad O'Brien served as an executive producer.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 74 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.8/10.The website's consensus reads: "As gripping as it is deeply unsettling, The Perfect Neighbor lays bare the systemic failures and the quiet terror embedded in American legal systems with surgical precision."[12]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]
Writing for RogerEbert.com, critic Jourdain Searles gave the film three out of four stars and wrote that the title is "so unassuming that even the most casual viewer can guess how harrowing the film they’re about to see will be" and goes on to say that the film is "good" but that change would be "better."[14] Robert Abele of Los Angeles Times wrote that "while The Perfect Neighbor is, on the most visceral level, a documentary horror film built with police footage, it also reveals how a violent tragedy can be unwittingly manifested by unchecked grievance and a law that weaponizes white fear more than it guards anyone’s peace."[15]
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