The Perfect Neighbor
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): October 10, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistWarren CantrellJan 27, 2025
Gandbhir could have arranged all of this like a book report with a foregone conclusion, yet she trusts in the truth of this story and the intelligence of her audience to pull apart the necessary history and sociopolitical context of it all. Read full review
91
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 27, 2025
Gandbhir isn’t here to provide those answers, but with her unembellished, formally compelling vision, she gives all the evidence needed for those in power to rethink the laws and systems in place. Read full review
90
Next Best PictureSara ClementsOct 17, 2025
It serves as both an exploration of the law and a powerful tribute to a mother, a woman, and a human life tragically cut short. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithOct 17, 2025
The climax, in which police slowly drag the truth out of the central figure, is harrowing. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 10, 2025
While The Perfect Neighbor is, on the most visceral level, a documentary horror film built with police footage, it also reveals how a violent tragedy can be unwittingly manifested by unchecked grievance and a law that weaponizes white fear more than it guards anyone’s peace. Read full review
90
The New YorkerJustin ChangFeb 13, 2025
The simple spectacle of children at play, it seems, is all it takes to transform a patch of American suburbia into a gaping, microcosmic wound of racism, paranoia, aggression, mental illness, and gun violence. But The Perfect Neighbor is not—or not entirely—a despairing work. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeJan 26, 2025
As evidence mounts, The Perfect Neighbor steadily and deftly builds momentum until its crushing apogee. Read full review
88
The Travers TakePeter TraversOct 24, 2025
Exclusively culled from police-cam footage, this outstandingly crafted, Oscar-buzzed documentary examines a white Florida woman who murders her Black neighbor on the basis of a stand-your-ground law that indicts an entire society Read full review
88
Slant MagazineRoss McIndoeFeb 1, 2025
Geeta Gandbhir’s trenchant documentary takes incendiary material and aims it at a larger target. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 26, 2025
Gandbhir’s unforgettable documentary crystallizes the horrors of stand-your-ground laws by examining their effects through the lens of a single case — one that harrowingly illustrates the defects of castle doctrines (among other policy failures) by painting a microcosmic portrait of white America’s inability to parse between fear and anger. Read full review
80
The TimesKevin MaherOct 17, 2025
I’m not convinced that we have the moral right to watch some of these scenes and to witness a tiny traumatised boy at his most bereft and alone. Still, it’s an outstanding, provocative film that is bound to inspire debate. Watch it and discuss. Read full review
80
The RevealScott TobiasOct 16, 2025
It is shocking in its revelations, thrilling in its possibilities. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineJim VorelOct 15, 2025
What [Gandbhir] presents is stark, horrifying, and infuriating on multiple levels. Read full review
80
ColliderEmma KielyOct 15, 2025
A first-hand retelling of how easily racism can become deadly, The Perfect Neighbor is one of the most compelling documents of how inherently dangerous it is for Black people to exist in America today. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 9, 2025
A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 26, 2025
The Perfect Neighbor’s sombrely objective approach invites audiences to discover how this tragedy unfolded and speculate what, if anything, could have prevented it. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 26, 2025
The tragedy here doesn’t stop with a white woman shooting her Black neighbor, but the underlying belief that she felt she could and still get away it. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 3, 2025
I point this out not to exonerate Lorincz in any way—goodness knows that the sheriff’s investigation in the doc’s final third gives her outrageously more leeway than a Black suspect would receive. Still in monsterizing her in this way, The Perfect Neighbor lets viewers off the hook. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerOct 20, 2025
The documentary’s damning look at stand-your-ground laws and the ineffectiveness of police even when they’re doing everything “right” (because the body-cam footage that makes up this film wouldn’t exist if they thought they were doing something “wrong”) is awful and thorough, avoiding cliché through a devotion to fisheye footage. Its upsetting, explicit-bordering-on-exploitative access drives its points into the pit of your stomach. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comJourdain SearlesOct 14, 2025
This is a good film, but change would be a much greater achievement. How much longer must we studiously document senseless suffering? Read full review
60
The TelegraphAnita Singh Oct 20, 2025
As a way of capturing the horrors of that night, the spareness of the film-making is powerful. But in terms of giving us the full picture, it falls short. Read full review
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