Earlier in the year, at a film festival, I watched what’s probably going to end up being the best Netflix documentary of the year, and while it didn’t have a release date at the time, the streamer has finally let us known when it’ll release the movie.
The doc I’m talking about is called The Perfect Neighbor, and after playing at several film fests (including Sundance where it premiered and Sheffield DocFest where I saw it) it’s set to release on Netflix on Friday, October 17. After those initial screenings it sits at a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes with over 30 positive reviews.
The Perfect Neighbor is about the growing tensions in a small Florida neighborhood, blossoming out from one resident who constantly complains to the police about the other. The dispute escalates until someone’s dead and another is doing their best to get off from the crime scot-free.
While that could describe your generic Netflix true crime docuseries, what makes The Perfect Neighbor stand out is that almost all of the story is constructed from police bodycam footage taken during the various complaint call-outs and investigations. We can directly see how the players acted during the events, and judge them for ourselves without having to rely on any talking heads telling us how to feel.
The experience is also strangely gripping and visceral, putting us in on the action while also giving us the benefit of hindsight to know how it’ll play out. This certainly isn’t a doc you should watch while scrolling your phone; it’s one to pay attention to.
I will say that one downside of this is that bodycam audio can be really hard to make out — I couldn’t make out whole sentences during my screening, so I’d recommend you make the most of Netflix’s subtitles feature to ensure you don’t miss anything.
Like the true story it portrays, The Perfect Neighbor touches on the important topic of stand-your-ground laws, as beyond the events it looks at the consequences of the killing and court trial. I’d recommend avoiding looking into the story behind the case for fear of spoilers, which is why I haven’t named the people involved despite it being public record.
The movie is a harder-hitting release than we usually see from Netflix but that’s why you should watch it!