Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of November 10, 2025
The Perfect Neighbor
Rated R for language
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%
Streaming on Netflix
This documentary hit Netflix a month ago, but somehow it slipped past my purview until this week when it won five Critics Choice Documentary Awards, including Best Documentary, so I had to immediately turn it on to find out what the hubbub was about. This jaw-dropping piece of non-fiction follows a neighborhood in Florida which is full of kids who love to play outside, as kids do. But one old white woman does not like it, and she is constantly calling the cops to come out and stop it. Most of the film consists of body cam footage from the local police, who do their best to intercede and keep the peace. From the very beginning, you know that something bad is going to happen, and you spend the first hour in anxiety and anticipation for whatever event will play out. And it is horrible. The film will hit you like a brick over the head as you watch the actions of a deplorable, racist old woman acting in ways that would make you ashamed to be associated with her or her beliefs in any way. The movie also explores and exposes the dangers in Florida’s Stand-Your-Ground law that allows a lot of racist and horrific violence to go unpunished in our country. While movies can make me tear up at times, this one is bound to have you reaching for the tissue continually as it breaks your heart into pieces. It is extremely well put together, and the evidence is displayed as fairly and un-biased as you can get in a case like this. It also gives you a special degree of confidence in local law enforcement, who do all the right things, even if they couldn’t prevent such an event from taking place. A