Filmed over several years, unveiled at a secret screening, and instantly memed, You Can See Everything is the buzziest documentary in a long time. But even if you know almost all the public dirt on Elizabeth Holmes – our own Katie Anaya reviewed The Inventor for this very site in 2019 – nothing can prepare you for how bizarre, hilarious, and unsettling this film is.
Holmes infamously founded health-tech start-up Theranos in the early 2000s. But the technology they claimed would revolutionize medicine never worked, and she was convicted of fraud in 2022, alongside her lover and company president Sunny Balwani. She retreated from public view, with Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim assigned to document her last month of freedom before starting her federal prison sentence. But why would someone entrust a comedian like Fielder to tell her side of the story? That's just one of many questions the film has to reckon with but can't answer. Holmes is just that inscrutable.
In the first half of the film, Fielder gets nearly unfettered access to Holmes and her insufferable husband Billy. Inside their beachside home in San Diego, Holmes cares for her two children and maintains her innocence. Meanwhile, Billy courts investors for a new health-tech company, which he later claims will succeed because of the power of AI. All the scenes here are bracing and uncomfortable, as Holmes and Fielder have a surreal intimacy while Billy constantly tries to assert his dominance. As the hours tick away, Fielder tries to push deeper into his subject, hoping to find cracks in the facade. But it's still impossible to tell if Holmes is genuine or the greatest manipulator in history.
If that was the end of the tale, this would already be a compelling documentary. Oh, but things get even weirder in the second half. With Holmes in prison – and access to her extremely restricted – Fielder has to get creative. His solution is at once surprising and obvious, and used to great effect. But Billy also takes over the story. Two years into Holmes's sentence, he's running the start-up in Austin, raising the kids, and becoming even more of a dick. He checks off nearly every unpleasant box that defines the tech bros who have invaded Texas's capital.
Still, there's a great moment when Billy says something truly bizarre and attributes it to Holmes. It seems like his vanity rearing its ugly head again. But later Holmes tells Fielder the same thing, and it's then you realize these two strange folks – one completely humorless yet generous, one utterly craven and driven – are still deeply in love and possibly made for each other. It's at once tender and baffling.
In addition to the film's creativity and "How-did-they-get-that-on-camera?" amazement, it also features some of the year's most stunning cinematography. That's courtesy of David Bolen, who also lensed this year's vivid Primetime. There's a shot of Fielder chatting with a collaborator, where the room is illuminated only by the fireplace, that I'll be thinking about for a long time.
You Can See Everything is the best movie of the year so far, an utterly transfixing achievement. It's a must-see, no matter how much you think you know about the story.
