Title – The Perfect Neighbor (2025)

Director – Geeta Gandbhir (I Am Evidence)

Cast – Susan Lorincz, Ajike Owens

Plot – Documents, mainly through police bodycam footage, ongoing and escalating neighbourhood disputes between Susan Lorincz and a collection of her neighbours in the American state of Florida. 

“I’m having a problem with my neighbours’ children”

Review by Eddie on 03/11/2025

One of the year’s most surprising streaming hits that has managed to become one of Netflix’s most watched originals of 2025, Geeta Gandbhir’s confronting and unflinching documentary that charts Florida woman Susan Lorcincz’s increasingly volatile run-ins with her neighbours is a unique and gripping experience, even if it feels as though it missed the mark to dive deeper into a few of its unexplored or deliberately left out elements.

Told almost exclusively through 911 calls, police bodycam footage and police interviews, The Perfect Neighbor gives viewers an up close and personal view into Lorincz’s dealings with authorities and her neighbourhood across the period of multiple years as the single woman went toe to toe with many who lived in the vicinity of her home, leading to some troubling and shocking developments that hit hard when they land.

The type of experience that is best suited to be watched by its audience as blind as possible heading into it, Neighbor is a twisting and turning tale of wrong decisions, human weakness and the underlying issues at play within American society and is a film sure to spark debate amongst many who watch it about who was in the wrong, who’s at fault and how one would learn to be better from what at first appears to be nothing more than minor neighbourhood disputes that would occur on a daily basis.

Missing a chance to deeply explore backgrounds and motivations of key real-life characters at the heart of her story and also chances to get more sides to the stories that play-out here, Gandbhir’s tale may take too much of a surface level approach to its complicated story for some but there’s no denying there’s an incendiary nature at the heart of this story/documentary that is heartbreaking, important and necessary all in equal measure.

There are no doubt occurrences and incidents here are outside the usual run of the mill daily dealings but there’s also a relatability and familiarity that crosses borders and barriers here making Neighbor an important feature that’s shining a light on all of us and allowing all to learn from what it explores even when it may be hard to bear or comprehend.

Final Say –

A warts and all documentary that is told in a unique way, The Perfect Neighbor may miss a few chances to provide more clarity or backstory on its subject and subject matters but it’s still a mostly gripping account of a serious of sad and unfortunate situations that one would hope aren’t to be repeated.

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