Sundance 2025 Review: The Perfect Neighbor – “Gripping, emotional, and upsetting.”

A still from The Perfect Neighbor by Geeta Gandbhir, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

I wish this documentary, The Perfect Neighbor didn’t need to exist.  But sadly, this laser-focused look at one Florida neighbourhood’s tragedy urgently reminds us of the racism and gun violence that ripples through America’s communities.  This isn’t to say these things can’t and don’t exist elsewhere in the world, but director Geeta Gandbhir is particularly investigating and uncovering the harm of Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law, one of many states to have legislation that allows someone to use deadly force if they are at risk of bodily harm, or if they even fear that they might be in imminent danger.  This has led to an increase in deaths, in particular racially motivated shootings.

The Perfect Neighbor opens with a distressing 911 call that reports the shooting of a woman in a Marion County, Florida neighbourhood.  Gandbhir then takes us back in time two years, but the fact that we know how this is going to end means we already have a sense of dread about all that happens in between.  Using almost exclusively police body cam footage, Gandbhir, with editing from Viridiana Lieberman, expertly crafts the narrative which eventually leads to Susan Lorincz shooting and killing, Ajike Owens.

Owens lives on this Florida street with her four children.  A single mother, she’s well-liked in the community, known for having sacrificed a lot for the well-being of her kids.  It’s a busy street, with a lot of the neighbourhood children, mostly Black, socializing and playing together.  They often like to play football or run around the empty field across the street, something the owner of the property allows.  But there is one person, whose rental property borders this grassy lot, that is constantly at odds with the kids and their often loud playing.  The children call Lorincz “The Karen” because she is constantly complaining, and calling the police on them.

The police to their credit, respond to each of her pointless 911 calls with a calm respect for the neighbourhood kids which is reciprocated.  The local children won’t even vocalize the lewd language Lorincz has shouted at them, telling the police she’s used the “A-word” or the “F-word” at them.  These are good kids, and the officers acknowledge they’re just being kids.  They tell them to try and not antagonize her, seemingly rolling their eyes at Lorincz’s increasingly shocking behaviour in an effort to diffuse the situations to which they are called.  And they are called a lot.  Yet we know this is all eventually going to escalate and end in tragedy.  One night through her closed, dead-bolted steel door, Lorincz shoots Owens with her gun, killing her.

Gandbhir forces us to watch, leaving us in the devastating aftermath as her family realizes Ajike Owens has died.  The children are told their mother is never coming back.  A neighbourhood is forever changed.  But, the horrors don’t stop here as while the local police seemed dedicated to the safety of the residents, the detectives and police system as an entirety seem almost dedicated to the shooters.  We watch as they politely question her, accompany her home to get her belongings, calmly tell her she is going to jail when she refuses to be placed in handcuffs.  As Owens’ community protests outside, wanting justice for Ajike’s murder, you realize how much law enforcement is protecting the suspect, how the colour of her skin is helping her navigate a system that is designed to defend her actions.

If watching The Perfect Neighbor doesn’t make you insanely angry, then you might be part of the problem.  It’s a gripping, emotional, and upsetting look at a racist world that sadly exists outside all of our doors.  It highlights what happens when certain laws are created with bias; when entitlement becomes the pervasive basis of society.  Sadly, nothing can change for Ajike Owens’ family.  Four children live now without a mother.  Until voters cast ballots in the name of real change, and politicians make good on their promises; until we as a society have a distinct paradigm shift, this is reality.  And this documentary will remain necessary viewing for the world we live in.

The Perfect Neighbor premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.  For more information, head to the Sundance website.