A striking and heartbreaking documentary about a woman who was shot on someone else’s doorstep, The Perfect Neighbor will have you yelling at the television.
I know a lot of people who have minor issues with their neighbors. I live in a big city, and all of the houses and apartments are immediately next to each other, some where you can stand between them and touch both buildings. That said, the problems are mostly minor. Someone is being too loud, doing yardwork too early, or is allowing their dog to bark in the yard for hours. Annoying, but not typically life altering. Let me tell you, after watching this, you’re going to give thanks that you have the neighbors that you have.
The Perfect Neighbor is a documentary about a small neighborhood in Ocala, Florida, where one woman continuously called the police on the many neighborhood children for various reasons. The police quickly began to understand that the complainant, Susan Lorincz, was both making things up and exaggerating the situations, also claiming that part of the public grass and street were her property. Ultimately, on June 2, 2023, Lorincz shoots her neighbor, Ajike Owens.
This entire film is constructed out of videos of the situation over time. The majority of the film comes from police body camera footage, but there is also some footage from security cameras and cameras from the police station. No interviews, nothing else.
It is the most honest documentary I’ve ever seen because this is the story of what happened. As with any doc, not all footage was used, and perhaps there is some angle for leaving things out, but I wish that more films would be made like this. Every word is out of the mouths of the participants as they are living it, which is incredibly powerful.
There are probably around two dozen neighborhood kids playing in the street every day. They are loud, they play football, they run around, they rollerblade – they act like children. And anyone can understand that if you work from home or just want peace in your own space, the sounds that this makes, plus the leaving of random things near your property (a bike, a skate), could be annoying. But as one of the officers says, he would far rather this than the trouble that they could be getting into.
Susan Lorincz is a hugely challenging person and I do not know how the police and parents kept their cool for as long as they did. Besides calling the cops constantly, she was both physically and verbally abusive (throwing a house sign at a woman and scratching her leg, calling the children all kinds of horrible names that I won’t repeat here), and she created issues just to “prove a point.” In one scene, a parent explains that one day Lorincz’s car alarm went off every six minutes. Pulling all of the kids away from the area, they waited to see what would happen. And when the alarm went off again, it was clear that Lorincz was setting it off herself and blaming the children.
I watch a lot of true crime shows and documentaries, and I have never been more satisfied at watching a person get arrested. The death of a mother is an incredible tragedy, but it is compounded by the intense pain in her four children. These children are beautiful young humans that don’t deserve to have to grow up with these memories. And while Ajike Owens will not be forgotten because of this film and all of the people who love her, her children, who are her legacy, will hopefully continue to tell their story. This is an excellent film. Watch it.
I know a lot of people who have minor issues with their neighbors. I live in a big city, and all of the houses and apartments are immediately next to each other, some where you can stand between them and touch both buildings. That said, the problems are mostly minor. Someone is being too loud, doing yardwork too early, or is allowing their dog to bark in the yard for hours. Annoying, but not typically life altering. Let me tell you, after watching this, you’re going to give thanks that you have the neighbors that you have.
