You Can See Everything Is One of the Most Fascinating Documentaries Ever Made

A24

5/5 stars

There are many people who believe that documentaries are the best way to tell the truth in cinema. However, the reality is far more complicated than that. Documentaries, despite their claims to "truth," are still beholden to the viewpoint of their creator and subjects, throwing the whole notion of subjectivity into disarray. This concept of who is telling whose story is the primary concern of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's new film You Can See Everything, which plays as a typical documentary before it sends audiences into a kaleidoscopic journey into the very nature of subjectivity itself, resulting in one of the most fascinating documentaries ever made.

The subject of the film is Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley businesswoman who defrauded investors out of half a billion dollars with her medical diagnosis device company Theranos. In May of 2023, Fielder lived with Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans, to get their side of the story before Holmes went to serve an 11-year prison sentence.

The first half of the film involves Fielder just talking with Holmes and Evans to hear their side of the story. Fielder is such a disarming presence that he is able to get more from his subjects through simple questions than other interviewers would get through a more straightforward expose. Through his simple, conversational method, we witness a naive, unaware side of Holmes that we maybe weren't expecting.

However, in the second half of the film, the perspective changes in ways that upend everything we've seen. Without spoiling anything, Fielder and Oppenheim's style calls into question the whole nature of subjectivity and objectivity, viewer and viewed, manipulator and manipulated, giving us a film that calls into question how much art can really tell us about a true story. The filmmakers are telling us that if you're looking for the truth, you're not going to find it on the screen.

Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim // Featuring Elizabeth Holmes, Nathan Fielder, and Billy Evans // 174 minutes // A24 // Rated R