{"id":241594,"date":"2025-10-21T18:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/241594\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T18:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:16:09","slug":"the-perfect-neighbor-crosses-a-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/241594\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Perfect Neighbor” crosses a line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early in the Netflix<\/a> true crime<\/a> documentary<\/a>, \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor,\u201d an ongoing dispute between Susan Lorincz and her neighbors in an Ocala, Florida residential block is succinctly summarized by an unlikely participant: eight-year-old Afrika Owens. Afrika\u2019s mother, 35-year-old Ajike \u201cAJ\u201d Owens, allowed Afrika and her older brothers, Israel and Isaac, to frequently join other neighborhood kids playing games in the empty field near their home, adjacent to Lorincz\u2019s rental unit. Despite a lack of documented proof, Lorincz called the police several times to report that the children were being loud and destructive, \u201ctrespassing\u201d on her property \u2014 a key word that Lorincz would continue to leverage in the coming weeks. During their routine response to one of Lorincz\u2019s complaints, police asked Afrika what prompted the call. \u201cThe kids are just playing around here, and she comes out here talking smack,\u201d Afrika says about Lorincz. Another friend in the group, an older child whose face is blurred in the film, adds a worthwhile kicker: \u201cWe\u2019re not even\u2026 we\u2019re 11!\u201d<\/p>\n

This distinction between the group of children in the Ocala neighborhood and their 58-year-old neighbor, Lorincz, is an important one in Geeta Gandbhir\u2019s documentary, which was a hit at this year\u2019s Sundance Film Festival<\/a> before Netflix acquired the film for distribution. \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d is composed almost entirely of police bodycam footage, pieced together to create a haunting account of the escalating incidents. Across several months of archival footage, the children remain confused and upset that they\u2019re being targeted for doing nothing other than being kids, playing outside and keeping to themselves. And while they may not be able to make perfect sense of it, they also shouldn\u2019t have to. Gandbhir\u2019s film emphasizes the massive injustice of children being made to experience not just constant harassment by an adult, but wanton prejudice and, eventually, the ramifications of manslaughter. After a quarrel between Lorincz and the kids on June 2, 2023, Ajike approached Lorincz\u2019s home to speak to her neighbor and was shot through the door, dying from her injuries soon after.<\/p>\n

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(Netflix) Loved ones mourn Ajike \u2018AJ\u2019 Shantrell Owens, as seen in \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d<\/p>\n

Just because something looks and feels like a highbrow, more considerate true crime offering doesn\u2019t mean that it can\u2019t be undone by the genre\u2019s same trappings.<\/p>\n

Once police arrive on the scene, bodycam footage captures the immediate fallout from the violent crime, capturing a neighborhood in deep distress. And as effective as these recordings are in sending a pit plummeting to the viewer\u2019s stomach, they also give \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d a bitter, distasteful flavor. Gandbhir doesn\u2019t shy away from showing the extent of the trauma as it\u2019s happening, giving us a firsthand look at a tragedy unfolding in real time. But her touch is so heavy that it becomes leaden, almost crushing. In the chaos of Ajike\u2019s death, viewers are forced to watch children who have already endured months of strife at the hands of an adult process the fact that they\u2019ve lost their mother. We don\u2019t just feel their guilt, fear and regret come pouring forth all at once; we see it. And as appropriately affecting as that sight is, especially when Gandbhir is emphasizing the inequity of American \u201cstand your ground<\/a>\u201d laws, one has to wonder how far is too far when it comes to depicting a victim\u2019s trauma for the sake of an audience\u2019s entertainment.<\/p>\n

While \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d is certainly one of the finer examples of true crime documentaries in the last decade, its potency is hampered by the sheer extent of the trauma in the film. Gandbhir\u2019s decision to tell this story through bodycam footage and security video, as opposed to on-camera interviews with the Owens family or any friends and neighbors from their Ocala community, is a smart one. Through this perspective, audiences remain engaged with the film\u2019s events, told largely in chronological order, without any unnecessary frills or dramatization. The style allows \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d to stand out from the pack of true crime documentaries and series proliferating streaming platforms, many of which are constructed with far less grace than Gandbhir\u2019s film.<\/p>\n

But just because something looks and feels like a highbrow, more considerate true crime offering doesn\u2019t mean that it can\u2019t be undone by the genre\u2019s same trappings. With true crime\u2019s popularity dramatically increasing over the last 15 years, audiences have become increasingly desensitized. Shots of graphic violence, crime scenes and dead bodies are nothing new; in fact, they\u2019re so commonplace that they\u2019ve reached the point of parody<\/a>. And while these aspects can be included to give viewers a full scope of a crime, they can easily become exploitative, especially given that Netflix \u2014 arguably the premier purveyor of streaming true crime \u2014 doesn\u2019t exactly have the most sensitive touch when it comes to its library of originals. Take the 2019 docuseries \u201cDon\u2019t F**k with Cats<\/a>,\u201d which includes gratuitous shots of animal violence and shots of a real snuff film. Or, consider Ryan Murphy\u2019s<\/a> \u201cMonster\u201d series, in which the true crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer<\/a>, Ed Gein<\/a> and the Menendez brothers<\/a> are retold in sordid, bewilderingly sexy detail.<\/p>\n

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(Netflix) Susan Lorincz, as seen in \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the streamer\u2019s history of glamorizing and heightening heinous acts isn\u2019t necessarily indicative of the quality of \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor,\u201d it does cloud the documentary\u2019s release with apprehension. As a Netflix true crime film, \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d is getting the same kind of clickbait headline treatment that a more salacious, less impactful documentary on the streamer would. \u201cAJ Owens\u2019 Mother Had the Most Heartbreaking Reaction to \u2018The Perfect Neighbor,\u2019\u201d one outlet\u2019s<\/a> search headline reads. Others answer such simple questions as where the crime took place, what happened to Lorincz, and what all the hype about the documentary is in the first place. One particularly revelatory headline, speaking to the lack of sensitivity surrounding this tragedy, reads<\/a>: \u201cWhere Are Ajike Owens\u2019 Kids Now? Inside Their Lives After Their Mom Was Shot and Killed by Their Neighbor.\u201d This kind of response merely sensationalizes a harrowing experience that no child should have to endure, and, as important and compelling as Gandbhir\u2019s film is, it does little to discourage a reaction that treats the victims, who are still just kids, like clickbait fodder.<\/p>\n

When a film so agonizing is immediately followed by empty, uninformative clickbait articles asking \u201cwhere are they now\u201d questions about still-grieving children, one has to wonder where the line is. When does the pursuit of an affecting emotional core become utterly reckless?<\/p>\n

In the immediate wake of the shooting, pandemonium overtakes the little street in Ocala. Before police lights cover the entire neighborhood in red and blue, we see personal security footage of the entryway to a neighbor\u2019s home, where Ajike\u2019s oldest son, 12-year-old Isaac, is visibly in distress and hyperventilating, begging for someone to call 911. This sight alone is gut-wrenching, like something not meant for human eyes, compounded by the fact that we\u2019re watching a child trying to help his mother in a moment where every second counts. In bodycam footage, shortly after, viewers watch as police examine Ajike\u2019s body, lying motionless on the ground. Among the disarray are soundbites from neighbors and Ajike\u2019s other children. When police ask nine-year-old Israel if he\u2019s hurt, Israel responds: \u201cNo. Well, my heart is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

One could make the case that Gandbhir isn\u2019t showing us much more than we\u2019d see on the nightly news, and certainly not anything more than we could already find online or in any other true crime documentary. There\u2019s also something to be said about the power these images have in emphasizing the film\u2019s larger point of discourse around \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws, which allow Americans to defend themselves through violent force if they feel their lives are threatened. The laws have long been subject to criticism, with data showing that these laws are overwhelmingly used in cases of violence perpetrated by white individuals against Black people. And while Gandbhir\u2019s film paints a very clear portrait of what happened, and how Lorincz attempted to abuse these laws in her favor, it\u2019s difficult to ignore \u2014 let alone justify \u2014 the extent to which \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d depicts the Owens\u2019 suffering.<\/p>\n

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The gut punch comes after Ajike\u2019s body is taken from the scene by paramedics, and the father of her kids gathers them nearby to deliver what may be the worst news they\u2019ll ever get in their lives. Upon hearing the words, \u201cMom\u2019s not coming back anymore,\u201d Isaac, Israel and Afrika are hysterical, groaning and crying while falling to the ground. While Gandbhir isn\u2019t reveling in their pain, she refuses to cut away, creating a devastating and altogether mystifying section of the film that overwhelms her larger message. Scenes like this are tricky enough to pull off tastefully in dramatized films, but here, the sequence feels impossibly grievous. It\u2019s angering, and rightfully so, but watching three young children grapple with the realization that their mother is gone backs \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d right up to the line of rubbernecking sensationalism. Considering that these events happened less than two years ago, there\u2019s also the queasy knowledge that Ajike\u2019s children are still so young, young enough to not yet understand the potential consequences of having their most crushing life moments caught on camera and used in a documentary for the world\u2019s most popular streaming service. When a film so agonizing is immediately followed by empty, uninformative clickbait articles asking \u201cwhere are they now\u201d questions about the grieving Owens children, one has to wonder where the line is. When does the pursuit of an affecting emotional core become utterly reckless?<\/p>\n

That question has no simple answer, and perhaps the true crime genre is too extensive and unregulated to find a moral ground that audiences, filmmakers and victims can all agree on. But as \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d crusades toward its inevitable end, the film\u2019s empathy depletes. Gandbhir is so caught up in ensuring the documentary is a persuasive, even invigorating look at the dangers of \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws that she loses sight of her subjects in their most raw, broken forms. Their pain is leveraged to influence the viewer, and to great success. But for a film about exploiting systems for their power at a great cost, it\u2019s baffling that \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d lodges its most violent, woeful images to a similarly careless extent.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

about what\u2019s new in true crime<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early in the Netflix true crime documentary, \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor,\u201d an ongoing dispute between Susan Lorincz and her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-241594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}