By NATHAN HILL/Contributor
Can you truly trust what you see?
A camera can record almost anything, but recording someone isn’t the same as understanding them. In “You Can See Everything,” the new documentary from A24, the question isn’t what is revealed but whether the filmmakers and audience can trust what they see.
This truly mind-bending documentary keeps you guessing the entire time.
Elizabeth Holmes founded and served as CEO of Theranos, a Silicon Valley health technology company created in 2003. The company claimed it could revolutionize blood testing by performing a wide range of medical tests using just a few drops of blood from a finger prick. It promised faster results and less invasive procedures than traditional testing.
Its ambitious vision attracted billions of dollars in investments and partnerships with major companies. Investigations ultimately revealed that its technology couldn’t reliably deliver on its promises. Theranos dissolved in 2018 and Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors.
This film follows the 34 days leading to the day she reported to federal prison in Bryan, Texas.
DECEPTION OR DISCOVERY
Leading the charge of the story is comedian, actor and producer Nathan Fielder, who Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans, welcomed into their home for an all-access look at their lives. This creates an interesting dynamic as the audience shifts between Fielder’s genuine intrigue and dry humor and Holmes’s alleged pathological lying.
It is a constant tug-of-war over control of the narrative.
Investor fraud might initially not appear to be an interesting enough topic to see a movie at a theater. However, what elevates this is the storytelling approach used, style of the directors and the human compulsion to figure out a mystery.
With unfiltered access, Fielder, the co-director, shows the dynamic between the couple and Evans’s arrogance and controlling nature, which plays a big part throughout the film.
We’re also introduced to the main conflict: whether Holmes is being genuine. This is a constant struggle until the end.
The directing style, which is very unconventional for a documentary, is one of the film’s best elements. The other director, 30-year-old Lance Oppenheim, has a vast background in documentary filmmaking. His style blurs the lines between documentary and narrative filmmaking. He frequently uses close-ups, extreme close-ups, and long shots that combine to provide a feeling of intimacy.
The film often feels scripted, but then you remember, “Oh, these are real people and they are actually saying this.”
FIGURE IT OUT
It is human nature to think we have people figured out, and “You Can See Everything” successfully plays right into this. Holmes and Evans desperately try to paint the picture that Holmes didn’t lie, she has never lied and she, in fact, can’t lie.
She is portrayed as being deeply literal and not understanding sarcasm. This contradicts everything about her public persona. And this is where the mystery comes into play.
Is Holmes just a complicated genius who is misunderstood and so happened to get sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, or is she a master manipulator who curated this helpless persona to make people pity her?
The question keeps you glued to your seat.
Fielder’s approach to filmmaking isn’t entirely unfamiliar to audiences who have followed his previous work. His HBO series, “The Rehearsal,” similarly blurs the boundaries between reality and performance, often placing himself in uncomfortable situations to explore how people behave when they believe they are in control.
There is a significant difference here. Rather than constructing elaborate scenarios for unsuspecting participants, Fielder enters an existing world in which the subject has spent years carefully managing her public image. The result feels less like a traditional documentary and more like an extended psychological chess match.
It’s a fascinating evolution of the filmmaking style for which Fielder is known.
My only qualm is the film’s length. With a run time of nearly three hours, the audience is in for a long ride. The length didn’t bother me too much because my eyes were locked on the screen the entire time. No one in the packed theater touched their phone once.
While some moments could have been shorter or removed, the length didn’t ruin the experience.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about “You Can See Everything” is that audiences may walk away knowing less about Elizabeth Holmes than they expected. Fielder doesn’t give the answers we want. Instead, he puts us in a position where we constantly question the person in front of us.
For anyone interested in true crime, human psychology, or simply watching a film that challenges the boundaries of documentary filmmaking, “You Can See Everything” is absolutely worth the trip to the theater.
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