This one story of a neighbourhood Karen in a Florida neighborhood doesn’t embody something remotely humorous. The brand new Netflix launch, The Good Neighbor, which marks the characteristic directorial debut for Geeta Gandbhir, is an extremely powerful watch. It chronicles the aftermath of the killing of Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens, a black girl and a mom of 4, being fatally shot by her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz, over a seemingly minor dispute.
The premise
Consisting virtually totally of police bodycam and CCTV footage, that is an extremely highly effective piece of filmmaking- one which revisits the scene and, in flip, reignites the query of a damaged authorized system that continues to be unsupervised. Gandbir lets the true footage do all of the speaking. Susan has been the one girl within the neighbourhood who retains calling the police. The children are trespassing, they’re enjoying, making noise, threatening her… she at all times has her causes. We witness it in actual time.
We see faces- some blurred- of victims, witnesses, up-close digicam angles, the tough exchanges when cops arrive upon a name, the tough pink lights, and the tense exchanges that observe with the officers. “That woman is at all times messing with folks’s children,” one of many neighbours tells the police about Susan. A few of them maybe know they’re being recorded, and a few of them do not, however the level is, all of it occurs in a collection of occasions that inform the viewer how this violent tragedy may have been averted.
Film Evaluation
The Good Neighbor
What begins as one girl’s relentless harassment of kids spirals right into a stunning act of violence on this harrowing new documentary.
Verdict
Consisting virtually totally of police bodycam and CCTV footage, that is an extremely highly effective piece of filmmaking- one which revisits the scene and, in flip, reignites the query of a damaged authorized system that continues to be unsupervised.
What works
There’s an inherent sense of dread that builds up as Viridiana Lieberman’s searing enhancing work first introduces the viewer to the tragedy after which takes them again to witness how issues modified between Susan and the neighbourhood. The calls turned an increasing number of erratic and irrational, the place the extremely tight Black neighborhood have been left aghast at this girl’s incessant complaints and threats.
When tragedy strikes, The Good Neighbor turns into a stunning reminder of a society that lets it occur in plain sight. To suppose that it was the perpetrator who referred to as the police right here. The irony. The breadcrumbs of racism have been as plain as daylight. The trigger for the “Stand Your Floor” legal guidelines, which arrive later within the doc, stitches the final bits of consideration on this case. With out spelling issues out from an outsider’s standpoint or taking first-person interviews on the topic, Gandbhir merely exhibits what’s already there.
There’s not a single third-person recount of what transpired in 2023 on this documentary to govern the viewer in the direction of any standpoint. That is as actual because it will get, the best way on a regular basis racism seeps into the cracks, to supply nothing however a bleak image of America in a nutshell, racked with a messed-up authorized system. The impact is unforgettable.
As harrowing and bleak as this documentation is, The Good Neighbor presents a superb showcase for Gandbhir’s efforts. This might have very effectively been a unique movie with out the piercing intelligence of the alternatives on show right here. Gandbhir trusts the fabric, however above all, she trusts the viewer to catch maintain of the damaging coronary heart of the story, to the underlying context and see, body by body, the deadly penalties of neglect.