Elizabeth Holmes, the convicted Theranos co-founder and CEO sentenced to over 11 years in prison, has been portrayed in the media as a straight-faced liar who swindled billions while marketing a fraudulent blood-testing device. She went media-silent from 2016 to 2023 until doing a New York Times profile, hoping to rebrand her image. Unsatisfied with the profile, she and her partner Billy Evans invited a documentary crew to film them during her final five weeks before incarceration. The result is “You Can See Everything,” a fascinating, uncomfortable character study co-directed by Nathan Fielder, best known for his show “Nathan for You,” and Lance Oppenheim.
Holmes and Evans maintain her innocence and are intent on rebranding her image from corporate villain to “Liz,” a family-oriented mother. Central to the image overhaul is correcting a disputed Times quote. Holmes claims she was misquoted as saying "I" created the "Elizabeth Holmes" character when she actually said "they," meaning the media.
The film is divided into two distinct halves. In the first, Nathan moves into the family’s rented Del Mar beach house. The atmosphere is thick. Conversations are full of intense glares, wide-eyed vacant smiles often mixed with tears, awkward pauses, and high emotion. Billy constantly lurks in the background, ready to kill any interview veering in a direction he doesn’t like. The cinematography adds to the discomfort, relying on extreme closeups. As the family prepares to lose its mother, it’s tough to watch.
Two scenes from the first half stand out. The first is when Nathan compares Liz’s circular talk to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” routine. Later, we witness tears and rage as Liz and Billy watch “The Dropout,” the 2022 Hulu dramatization about Holmes and Theranos. Their raw emotions are worthy of empathy.
After Liz enters prison, the film jumps ahead two years to 2025 with Nathan pursuing a follow-up interview. Still struggling to process their initial interactions, he recruits Amanda Seyfried to reprise her “Dropout” role as Holmes, staging reenactments of conversations he was not allowed to record. Seyfried becomes his sounding board. She is convinced that Liz and Billy are conning him, much like Holmes did with Theranos investors.
The second half of the film loses its initial objective neutrality. The reenactments rely on subjective memory, possibly influenced by Seyfried and Nathan’s own mixed emotions. The filmmakers start relying on cheap shots, reality-TV-style confrontations, and portray Billy as an evil puppet master. Their point of view is evident.
The film also raises questions about the ethics of granting documentary subjects editorial control or financial stakes, a practice common in many celebrity profiles. This film takes a stance against that practice without acknowledging its own biases. The final shot of the film only complicates the debate, blurring lines even further.
“You Can See Everything” earns its R-rating for language and nudity and is a fascinating, imperfect film, worthy of four-and-a-half out of five stars. It’s an unpleasant three-hour experience, but the questions raised could make for a lively dinner conversation. Ultimately, those will be as unresolved as whether Holmes created her character or “they” did.
