“You Can See Everything,” a documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, opens in US theaters on Friday, according to its distributor, A24. It was made by filmmakers Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, and no date has been announced for streaming.
The film shows Holmes, her partner and their two children in the weeks before she began a prison sentence for fraud. It has drawn strong reviews since a surprise first screening at a film festival in early September.
Release date and where to watch
The film runs about two hours and 55 minutes. At this point, theaters are the only way to see it. A24 has not said whether, or when, it will reach a streaming service. Viewers who want to watch at home will have to wait for an announcement.
How the film came about
Oppenheim and Fielder met after Oppenheim learned that Fielder had seen his 2020 documentary “Some Kind of Heaven.” Oppenheim emailed him, and they became friends. In 2023, Oppenheim brought Fielder the idea after hearing through a friend that Holmes was looking for someone to document her life.
According to A24, the film begins 34 days before Holmes reports to prison, when she invites a crew to film her life. Fielder later moves in with Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans. After she reports to prison, he keeps filming with Evans and stays in touch with Holmes through 2025.
Fielder is best known as a comedian whose shows, such as “Nathan for You” and “The Curse,” blur the line between comedy and documentary. Reviewers say this film also sits between genres. Variety called it a “hangout-movie” portrait of the Theranos founder and described it as Fielder’s way of asking what makes someone like Holmes tick.
The title and the trailer
The title comes from a promise Holmes makes to Fielder about total openness. She texts him the same phrase minutes later.
A teaser and a longer trailer both spread widely online. In the teaser, Holmes sits close to Fielder, holding eye contact, and says she is not trying to deceive him. He breaks character to ask if she is being real, and she replies that she is always real. In the full trailer, Holmes says she did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide, and that she agreed to the project to tell her story before going to prison.
The cast
The film features Holmes, Fielder and Evans, along with the couple’s children. Actress Amanda Seyfried, who played Holmes in the miniseries “The Dropout,” also appears, both as herself and in the role of Holmes. The documentary has no other actress playing a lead part.
What Fielder and Evans have said
After a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival, Fielder took questions from the audience, according to The New York Times. He said he was still struggling to understand what he had experienced. Later, he spoke to Variety about the experience. He said she can seem very genuine, but that he knows she is a “liar.”
Evans spoke about the film on a podcast on Thursday. He said the aim was for viewers to see Holmes themselves and form their own view: “Here she is. See her and make up your own mind.” He added that he had not seen the finished film and could not be sure how it would show the family.
Evans said the couple’s two children, ages 5 and 3, visit Holmes every week. He also said he thinks her decision not to speak publicly during her trial was her biggest mistake.
Reviews and reaction
The film received strong reviews and talk of an Oscar run after its Telluride debut. When it played at the New York Film Festival, the audience laughed, gasped and winced through the nearly three-hour running time.
Critics have written that the film starts as one kind of story and turns into another. A review in Rolling Stone said it moves from a look at image rehabilitation to a portrait of several personality traits. The reviews do not agree on whether the film is fair to Holmes or to its audience. Some call it unsettling, others call it funny, and several say it is both.
The filmmakers have not said how much of the footage was staged or shaped, and it is not always clear which scenes involve planning by Fielder. That question is part of the debate about the film.
Holmes’s case
Holmes was once seen as one of Silicon Valley’s brightest founders. She was found guilty in January 2022 on four counts of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud against investors who put millions of dollars into Theranos. The company claimed it could run many tests from a few drops of blood. Prosecutors showed that the technology did not work as promised.
She was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison and began serving her term in 2023. Her sentence has since been cut to 10 years and 3 months, and the Bureau of Prisons lists her release date as February 22, 2030.
Theranos has been the subject of earlier films and shows, including “The Dropout.” This film differs from those: it was made with Holmes’s cooperation, and she appears in it as herself.
For viewers, the film is long and unusual. It does not follow a standard documentary format, and it does not offer a simple verdict. Its makers have said they were still working out what they had seen. Audiences will decide for themselves whether the film reveals anything new about Holmes, or about the people who choose to film her.
Fielder and Oppenheim have not announced further projects. A24 has said only that the film is in theaters now.
Disclaimer: It does not reveal major plot points of the film. Statements by the people mentioned are as reported by the outlets named, and the film’s content may differ from how it is described here.
