The New York Film Festival recently hosted the highly anticipated premiere of "You Can See Everything," a secret documentary co-directed by absurdist comedian Nathan Fielder and director Lance Oppenheim. The film, which runs for an unusually long three hours, centers on disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans, offering an intimate and destabilizing look into their lives just before Holmes began serving her prison sentence. The documentary has quickly become one of the fall's most talked-about projects, delivering a psychological battle of wills between its creators and its notorious subjects.
The origins of the project date back to 2023, when Holmes was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy. Awaiting the start of her 11-year prison sentence, Holmes and Evans sought out a film crew to document their daily lives with their two young children. Their apparent objective was to protest Holmes's innocence and perhaps lay the groundwork for a rebranding effort they referred to as "Theranos 2.0." In an unexpected move, they selected Oppenheim—whose narrative feature debut, "Primetime," starring Robert Pattinson, premiered last month—and Fielder, the premier auteur of docu-reality whose boundary-pushing HBO series "The Rehearsal" established his reputation for extreme, cringe-inducing comedy.
As Fielder himself points out bluntly on camera, choosing a comedian famous for executing elaborate business scams to direct a documentary meant to clear one's name of a massive fraud scandal is an incredibly odd decision. Yet, this bizarre pairing forms the core of the film's tension. Oppenheim brings his signature visual style to the project, utilizing hyper-saturation, tight framing, and creeping zooms that highlight the eerie qualities of the family's mundane household rental. Meanwhile, Fielder employs his trademark needling questions and arched eyebrows, stripping away typical social buffers to confront Holmes directly.
The documentary unfolds like a thriller, backed by a dramatic score that captures a real-time unraveling of certainty. One of the film's most discussed moments involves a single-minute clip where Fielder and Holmes lock eyes, faces only inches apart, without blinking. "Are you being real right now?" Fielder asks, showcasing the meta-commentary that defines his work. The film also heavily features Evans, who entered Holmes's life after the Theranos collapse when they met at a party in 2017. Early in the film, Evans lies on a playroom floor with Holmes and asserts that providing maximum access to their daily lives is the best way for the public to see who she truly is.
However, the filmmakers do not shy away from difficult topics. Fielder and Oppenheim press the couple on various sensitive subjects, including whether Evans had any reservations about entering a relationship with Holmes at the height of her public scandal in 2017. The documentary even addresses personal matters such as the presence or absence of conjugal visits at the Texas prison where Holmes is currently incarcerated. Ultimately, the film presents a complex portrait of its subjects without offering easy answers about the truth. "You Can See Everything" is scheduled for a theatrical release in the United States on October 16, with release dates for the United Kingdom and Australia still to be announced.
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Md. Kazi Bijoy is a dedicated tech enthusiast and content creator with a passion for digital innovation. With years of experience in the tech industry, he specializes in breaking down complex topics into easy-to-understand guides. When he isn’t writing, he explores the latest gadgets and researches emerging trends in the digital world.