You Can See Everything, 2026.
Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.
Featuring Elizabeth Holmes, Nathan Fielder, and Billy Evans.
SYNOPSIS:
Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait becomes a mind-bending three-year journey.
34 days before Elizabeth Holmes was to be transferred to federal prison, Nathan Fielder (technically a co-director alongside Lance Oppenheim, but somehow labels like filmmaker, documentarian, storyteller, and others don’t even begin to resemble an accurate shape of what he is and apparently has been doing with television) and a camera crew were granted unprecedented access the likes of which camera crews rarely see. The result is You Can See Everything, something extraordinarily compelling and impossible to categorize.
That alone might also necessitate that fans of and newcomers to Nathan Fielder check out what is a cinematically riveting (the cinematography from David Bolen and score from Ari Balouzian are everything from observant to propulsive to mysterious that it could be confused with watching a narrative feature) look at the day-to-day lives of Elizabeth Holmes and her life and business partner, Billy Evans. This involves everything from raising young children (including an infant), prancing around the beachside of their San Diego home, and attempting to set the record straight on the fraudulent allegations surrounding her technological medical business, Theranos, and more specifically, the claims that an invention dubbed the iPod of testing devices could do so for anything, instantaneously after pricking a blood droplet.
The basis of the defense is framed on a grammatical misunderstanding, which is preposterous, but maybe not considering Elizabeth Holmes’ uncomfortable soul-stare and eerie smile and alien-like social confusion (hilariously demonstrated when Nathan Fielder utilizes a classic Abbott and Costello skit). Elizabeth Holmes gazes with an almost unnerving intensity and, bluntly, is a master manipulator who knows how to get what she wants. This sets up a WrestleMania-worthy psychological match of sorts between someone who made a show about scamming and, arguably, the world’s most infamous scam artist.
Our brains are fried in the process.
Structurally, though, the first sign that You Can See Everything has to be more than a window into those 34 days (an engaging lengthy opening stretch that simultaneously leaves one mildly disappointed, almost positive that there has to be something more ambitious and mind-bending to it) is that it jumps ahead to 14 days remaining before it’s even 30 minutes in, and to one day remaining around the one-hour mark. Within that timeframe, there is also ample opportunity to introduce Nathan Fielder for the uninitiated, who, yes, is all over this documentary in front of the camera, which would be something to take umbrage with if part of the entire experiment wasn’t also about his reactions and Elizabeth Holmes’ effect on whoever she targets like a laser with those eyes. In the opening moments, it’s also revealed that she and Billy believe tapping someone to make this documentary could rewrite the narrative around their negative public perception. Fat chance.
However, as Nathan Fielder observes, sometimes watching silently from a corner, it also becomes clear that Elizabeth and Billy might be manipulating each other or working on a master scheme. Without saying much, the details become so minuscule that reenactments come into play, often cross-cut with previously seen footage. At one point, for a conversation Nathan wasn’t allowed to film visually, the audio is synced to the reenactment, creating an unbelievably inventive, cinematic workaround that keeps the heart racing.
Curious about her reaction to the dramatized limited series The Dropout (where Amanda Seyfried played the businesswoman), Nathan Fielder suggests that he, Elizabeth, and Billy all watch the show together to get her take on not only its truthfulness or accuracy, but its value as a piece of art. Naturally, she doesn’t have kind words for anyone involved with the show (although she states she holds no grudge against Amanda), and as viewers, we see her bias, but a significant portion of the experience also becomes a profound examination of acting as an art form, and the creative liberties taken with such shows. Understandably, Nathan Fielder is also curious whether Amanda has any reflections or thoughts on Elizabeth Holmes.
That’s only the first block of You Can See Everything, which goes beyond the initial 34 days and into an even deeper investigation of the relationship and business dynamics between Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans, who is also a narcissistic terror himself. And while Nathan Fielder wisely keeps his personal feelings out of it, neither of them gets off the hook; one has to consider that this partner may have amplified Elizabeth’s already unstable, horrific behavior.
Still, there is no sympathy or empathy for Elizabeth Holmes, only an attempt to understand. Multiple times, Nathan finds himself locking eyes with her or in a casual, friendly physical embrace, often leaving believing there is no deception in her words. As he puts it, she behaves so openly, it’s almost as if she genuinely has nothing to hide. However, a lot is being hidden, with plenty of twists that keep documentarians and viewers questioning everything from character to motive to whether Nathan himself could become compromised and psychologically brainwashed by her.
It’s a documentary about performance as much as it is searching for absolute truth. Without spoiling the direction of You Can See Everything, know that this experience has quantifiable layers. Unless Nathan Fielder sticks around on the documentary seen, we might never see anything like it again
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
