“You Can See Everything” and You SHOULD!
BY: JACKSON WELLS / STAFF WRITER
The 53rd annual Telluride Film Festival happened over labor day weekend, and the schedule had been known for months. You had the premiere of Jesse Eisenberg sitting at the director’s chair for a second time with “The Debut,” Martin McDonagh’s star-studded “Wild Horse Nine,” and a National Geographic special about skiing down the previously unclimbable side of Mount Everest. It wasn’t until attendees got there that rumors of a mystery screening started to be gossiped about. Was it the untitled A24 project with Frank Ocean? Could it be a sneak preview of the long-awaited Dune 3? Nobody could’ve been prepared for what the reveal actually was.
For context, Elizabeth Holmes founded the company Theranos in 2003, promising to change the future of the healthcare industry forever with highly advanced blood-testing machines. 10 years later, Holmes became a billionaire through investors, making the Forbes list in 2014, two years before her downfall. It wasn’t long after making the list that a 2015 press piece snowballed her into being charged with wire fraud and conspiracy. She was arrested in 2023, but in the 34 days before her 11-year sentence, directors Nathan Fielder & Lance Oppenheim were set to capture her every move.
As a result of this, “You Can See Everything” hit theaters October 16th, with reviews unlike any other this year from fans, critics and companies alike. Even with it being 3 hours long, and only presenting a core 4-person cast, it has made $45 million so far under a very small promotion window. The fact that everybody involved was able to keep this under the radar for this many years pays off in its execution.
For those unfamiliar with Nathan Fielder, he is a satirically surrealist comedian who has worked with Comedy Central, HBO, Showtime and made Time’s list of most influential people. His unique awkward delivery gave each interaction a sense of humor yet still coming across as serious.
Elizabeth Holmes, on the other hand, is presented as either remarkably oblivious to the manipulation surrounding her, or very much complicit in it. In the entirety of the runtime, you can never quite figure out which it really is, but like the title implies, you can see everything. At least until Elizabeth’s partner Billy starts telling Nathan and the audience things that change how we see Holmes’ entire situation.
If you think this story sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the 2022 Hulu miniseries “The Dropout” starring Amanda Seyfried as a dramatized version of Elizabeth Holmes. After winning a Golden Globe for her performance, Amanda was asked to be a part of the film due to Holmes’ impending prison sentence. In theory, Holmes would speak to Nathan on the phone, he would record her dialogue and then get Amanda to play her “character” once more, this time with no fluff.
The most shocking points of this documentary come when Nathan, Amanda and Billy are in the same room together, referencing past scenes and current events with revolting context. If you’re in a packed theatre, which there most certainly still are, the audible gasps and deafening silence will be communal. The movie concludes with wrapping up loose ends from the beginning, while keeping some answers open-ended for us to witness in real time.
In a year of indie wins and A-listers bombing, “You Can See Everything” qualifies for both in the most unique way possible. And once you see the movie, there is a social media aspect to it that can keep you in the loop on just how monstrous co-operation can really be. Documentaries can seem like a lost art to passive consumers, but the way the world is rooting for this one gives the industry hope for more unique displays of reality on the big screen.
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