As shocking as the surprise Telluride Film Festival drop of the A24, Nathan Fielder / Lance Oppenheim directed “documentary”, ‘You Can See Everything’ was, has there ever been a better pairing of artist and subject? For years Fielder has created content that induces awkward hilarity, provokes, and ultimately forces the questioning of human behavior (‘Nathan For You’, ‘The Rehearsal’, ‘The Curse’). His unique blend of cringe comedy built on a foundation of reality television and documentary has consistently blurred the lines “of what is real and what is fake” (in the immortal words of Cameron Winter). For years Elizabeth Holmes has been the target of equal parts societal fascination and revulsion, a representative of the perversion of the American Dream, literally making something from nothing. As a result, she has already been featured in both acclaimed documentaries (Alex Gibney’s ‘The Inventor’) and fictional stagings (Liz Merriweather’s Amanda Seyfried-starring ‘The Dropout’) that dramatized her rise and fall as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur touting a miracle product that never did what she claimed.
Holmes’ case has been covered profusely to the point where it might seem odd that anyone might wring anything of further interest. Her “invention”, the Theranos blood analyzer, while a noble idea that truly would have revolutionized medical diagnostics, never came close to doing what she told investors it would. She was convicted of defrauding investors, yet was acquitted of actual patient fraud. She is currently serving a sentence at a Federal Prison (referred to as a “camp”), but just over a month prior to entering in the fall of 2023, she allowed a documentary camera crew to spend as much time as they desired with her and her family. What’s most intriguing is that this crew also consisted of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. It would seem that Billy Evans, her romantic partner and father of her two young children (all of whom are prominently featured in the film), is the one who invited A24 and Fielder specifically, believing that based on his tendency to illustrate the unvarnished truth that he would be able to present Holmes in a vastly different (and positive?!) light as compared to her public perception.
What transpires is quite frankly one of the most fascinating and confounding pieces of docu-art to be unleashed on audiences that had no idea this thing was even in the works. The almost three hour movie is not a narrative, nor a traditional portrait of a flawed individual. In fact there is no real comp to any existing material, rather seeming to be both a statement and an evolution of both the Nathan Fielder project and Lance Oppenheim intimate character piece. Make no mistake, Elizabeth Holmes IS a character, but these filmmakers don’t seem to have an agenda beyond letting the words flow, the camera capture, and they’ll figure everything out as they go. While much of the compelling force of the content was molded in the edit, it’s immediately apparent that Fielder, as he always does, finds so much in the moments.
A three-hour runtime may seem intimidating to viewers planning a night out, but the film earns every minute, every second, really. It’s presented almost organically, a profound living work that interrogates human perception, linguistic nuance, and the psychology of ambition. It’s also a treatise on fame and the desire for attention, with some real interrogation on the impact of fictional portrayal of real people and even the mystery of actorly transformation. It’s truly hard to talk about everything that happens in ‘You Can See Everything’ without spoiling the experience. The title itself overflows thematically, posing as a declaration but really should end in either a question mark or an ellipse . . .
Directed By: Nathan Fielder & Lance Oppenheim
Running Time: 174 min.
Rated: R
* * * * (out of 4 stars)
