‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Depicts Your Worst Nightmare

“When is it okay in America to shoot someone behind a locked door?” a grieving Pamela Dias asks. The answer is: usually never. Yet, Florida resident Susan Lorincz used one law to avoid arrest for days after she fatally shot Dias’s daughter, Ajike Owens. Though an entire neighborhood witnessed the crime, police took their time to even arrest Lorincz — until the case made national news.

Emmy-winning director Geeta Gandbhir worked with the Owens family and scoured through hundreds of hours of police bodycam footage to piece together the documentary, The Perfect Neighbor (2025). The backstory is both dark and bizarre: Lorincz, over two years, repeatedly called the cops on neighborhood kids for playing on an adjacent grass lot. No one could have imagined how that behavior would escalate to unforgivable violence. Now, in a seemingly endless saga, Lorincz has also counter-sued the Owens family, claiming they lied about the incident.

In Gandbhir’s experienced hands, The Perfect Neighbor is a heady mix of impending doom, justice delayed, and plenty of heart. With most documentaries, you already know the major strokes of what’s going to happen. Within the first five minutes, you know that “somebody got shot!” as police speed to the crime scene. But only a great documentary can keep you watching — to unearth the nuance that news headlines often miss.