Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s secretive documentary You Can See Everything brings the filmmaker into Elizabeth Holmes’s home in the weeks before her 2023 imprisonment for Theranos fraud, offering a surreal, three-hour character study.
Inside the Secretive Production and the Move Into Holmes’s Home
Made largely in secret over nearly four years, the project found its directors securing access to the disgraced tech founder before her federal prison sentence began in May 2023. Fielder moved directly into the household, living 24/7 with Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, in the domestic limbo preceding her incarceration at the minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas.
The couple was still parenting their young children during filming—having had a son in 2021 and a daughter in 2023, shortly before Holmes reported to prison—while filing legal challenges and discussing future entrepreneurial concepts.
The film captures the unique dynamic between Holmes and Evans, who see themselves as doubles with a connection they claim is practically telepathic. Evans is also shown attempting to engage with the studio and directors regarding profit shares and later using an AI company to create a lifelike version of Holmes after her incarceration.
The Surreal Confrontations and Critical Divide
True to Fielder’s established style of blurring performance and reality, the documentary quickly evolves beyond a standard talking-head chronicle of corporate malfeasance. Reviewers have praised its originality while noting the intense discomfort it induces. Some critics hailed it as an all-time great mind-melter and a brilliant film, whereas others noted the intense discomfort of watching the interactions.
Throughout the runtime, Fielder challenges Holmes directly about her past misstatements and the downfall of her blood-testing startup.
The world believes a reality about me that isn’t true.
Elizabeth Holmes
Her former partner and Theranos’s C.O.O., Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was convicted of 12 counts of fraud, while Holmes herself was convicted in 2022 of defrauding investors and sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison.
The Interplay of Doubles, Stand-Ins, and Amanda Seyfried
In a notable sequence, Fielder visits Seyfried at her apartment and shows her footage of Holmes watching her performance, creating a layered chain of observation.
Later sequences involve tensions around Evans and the production, with the narrative highlighting the contrast between public perception and the domestic reality filmed by David Bolen with cinematography aimed at capturing every expression.
Unresolved Questions as the Film Reaches Theaters
Meanwhile, Holmes has been serving her sentence at the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
