Nathan Fielder, the cult comedian behind “The Curse” and “The Rehearsal,” has co-directed an unconventional 174-minute documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos CEO convicted of defrauding investors. Released as a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival, “You Can See Everything” captures Holmes’ final days of freedom before beginning her 11-year prison sentence.
Holmes reached out to have her story documented shortly before her incarceration began. Fielder, collaborating with documentarian Lance Oppenheim and supported by A24, spent 35 days in 2023 at Holmes’ beachside home in Del Mar, California, where she lived with her partner Billy Evans and their two children. The filmmaker’s approach differs sharply from traditional documentary—it operates as what one reviewer describes as “reality-TV-as-hangout-movie psychodrama.”
Theranos, Holmes’ health technology company, was valued at $9 billion when she became a celebrity entrepreneur in 2015. She claimed to have developed a revolutionary blood-testing device requiring only pinpricks of blood—a concept she sold to major investors including Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison. The board included prominent figures like Henry Kissinger and James Mattis. However, according to the source text, “the revolutionary technology didn’t exist.” Experts, including Stanford medical professor Phyllis Gardner, told Holmes the concept wouldn’t work.
Despite her conviction, Holmes maintains absolute conviction in her own narrative. When questioned by Fielder about the crimes she was convicted of, she claims she did nothing wrong and appears to genuinely believe it. She asserts the device could host any blood test—they simply hadn’t “worked out” the chemistry. According to the documentary, Holmes treats this missing component as a minor, solvable problem rather than evidence of fundamental deception.
Fielder tests Holmes’ reasoning by showing her the classic Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First?” routine. She cannot explain the joke—a moment the source text frames as revealing her inability to hear meanings beyond those she personally decrees. Years after her conviction, Holmes and Evans continue pitching Theranos to investors.
The documentary’s second half shifts focus when the prison won’t permit further interviews with Holmes. Fielder brings in Amanda Seyfried, who portrayed Holmes in the 2022 Hulu miniseries “The Dropout,” to create layered commentary on her own portrayal.
Key facts
- Elizabeth Holmes is serving an 11-year prison sentence after conviction for defrauding Theranos investors
- The documentary was filmed over 35 days before Holmes began her prison sentence in 2023
- Theranos was valued at $9 billion, based on a blood-testing device that did not actually exist
- Holmes claims she never told a lie and maintains her device could perform any blood test