I genuinely can’t stop thinking about You Can See Everything.

I saw You Can See Everything over the weekend, and I truly have thought of little else since. There’s been plenty of hype and secrecy surrounding the documentary, but I was still surprised to walk into a packed theater on a Sunday afternoon for a Nathan Fielder project. It turned out to be one of the most palpably communal moviegoing experiences I’ve had in years. Collective gasps, boos, groans, nervous laughter—you could feel the entire theater trying to process what we were watching in real time.

Before we go any further, this is a spoiler-free chat. I encourage you to see the movie in theaters ASAP, partly because I think the communal experience is essential, and partly because there's a twist or reveal of sorts that will almost certainly be spoiled in the coming days. And if you've already seen it, PLEASE reply and brain-dump your thoughts with me. I desperately need more people to talk about this with, and I suspect my brain will be stuck on it for the foreseeable future.

Did we really need another Elizabeth Holmes documentary?

So, where do I even begin? On the surface, You Can See Everything is a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced Theranos founder convicted of defrauding investors after her blood-testing startup, once valued at $9 billion, was exposed as a fraud. Her story has already been told countless times, including in John Carreyrou’s bestselling book Bad Blood, HBO's The Inventor, Hulu's The Dropout, and the podcast of the same name. Which raises a fair question, and one I had going into the theater: Do we really need another Elizabeth Holmes documentary?

It’s certainly up for debate. And while this is, in many obvious ways, a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, it's also kind of...not.

You won’t learn new facts about Holmes’ cases, or get any real clarity about Theranos. Sure, you will leave with new thoughts or feelings about the person at the center of the story, but to me—and I suspect moviegoers will all leave the theater with different takeaways—this film is about truth, language, manipulation, bias, and a million other things. It's about who gets to control a narrative, and whether there's even such a thing as an objective truth. 

The Fielder Method

For the uninitiated, Nathan Fielder is an incredibly singular creative genius. Big claim, I know, but if you know, you know. His absurdist work obsesses over human behavior, authenticity, and failure, and he creates uncomfortable situations to explore all three. And when I say uncomfortable, I do mean uncomfortable. Let’s call this The Fielder Method.

My introduction to Fielder was HBO's The Rehearsal, which remains one of the most original, outlandish, and genuinely brilliant shows I've ever watched. Since then, I've struggled to make it through Nathan for You, his signature cringe comedy being almost physically painful for me, and have been too scared to tackle The Curse. (Although after seeing this movie, I've finally started watching it, and it’s him at a 10 for me, almost delightfully too difficult to watch). 

However, just like with Holmes herself, I don't think you need to be familiar with Fielder's work to appreciate this documentary. The Fielder Method is very much present, but this isn’t a solo project. Fielder took this wild ride with co-director Lance Oppenheim, an accomplished documentarian who currently has another buzzy film in theaters, Primetime. Their sensibilities complement each other so well that I'd argue this might actually be one of the more accessible introductions to Fielder's work, so if you’d like to go in completely blind, I think you’ll be just fine.

But if you want to be a good student before seeing the movie, I’d recommend the following homework: 

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You ~ can ~ see everything?

The film begins like a fairly conventional fly-on-the-wall documentary. We're introduced to Holmes, her partner Billy Evans (a character I can’t even begin to unpack), and their two young children (a two-year-old son and a three-month-old daughter) at the family's rented beachfront home in San Diego, in 2023, just 34 days before Holmes is scheduled to begin her prison sentence.

In this extraordinarily vulnerable moment for Holmes and her family, they've decided to invite a camera crew into their home to document it all. Why? It's one of the first of many questions the movie asks, and one that becomes increasingly complicated as the story unfolds.

At first, Fielder is just an observer. But Holmes and Evans repeatedly pull him into the conversation, asking for his opinions and inviting him to engage with their version of reality. Fielder then becomes an increasingly important character in the story. In some ways, he serves as a proxy for us, the audience, as the couple attempts to convince him that Elizabeth Holmes isn't the person we think she is.

It’s then that Fielder moves into their home, spending virtually every waking moment with the family as they prepare for Holmes' departure. His access is extraordinary, and the intimacy is unsettling. But the couple is more than willing to participate, as they tell the filmmakers, "You can see everything."

That's where things get really interesting. Because does seeing everything actually mean you get a clear picture? Who is manipulating whom here? How much of what we're watching is authentic, and how much is performance? And, even, can a documentary ever be objective when you spend so long consumed by a subject, and the very presence of a camera changes how people behave?

Then, halfway through, Holmes goes to prison, and the movie transforms from an intimate portrait of a family facing separation into something else entirely.

And that's where I'm going to stop yapping. Not just because I refuse to spoil it, but because I'm not entirely sure I could explain what I watched even if I wanted to. I've spent the last 24 hours turning it over in my head, questioning my own interpretations, and reconsidering things I thought I understood while watching. My thoughts are genuinely changing by the hour. And I think that's precisely what makes it so brilliant. 

I went into You Can See Everything wondering what else there could possibly be to say about Elizabeth Holmes. I left wondering how much we can ever really know about another person, even when they invite us to see everything. All that to say, I’ve been rendered speechless, which is one of my favorite feelings after the credits roll. If you’re looking for more of that vibe, these are my 5-star picks for the movies that completely melted my brain:

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Y’all, there is drama in the ballroom. Last week, Carrie Ann was Carrie Ann-ing, scolding pro Jenna Johnson over a lift and drawing boos from the audience. Jenna’s husband and fellow pro Val Chmerkovskiy responded on TikTok: “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” Yes, he was referencing Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. An insane comment that rightfully got Val suspended for the week.

Replacing him as Jenna Dewan’s pro is Alan Bernstein, a decision former pro Gleb Savchenko had thoughts about: “[Alan]’s just not up to the level of dancing, like, period. Like, quality, technique — he’s a good dancer, I guess, for TV. But if we talk about art? Creating art? He’s like, eh.” 🫖

I’m curious whether they’ll address why Val is absent tonight, but I’m even more excited for my favorite theme: Dedication Night! It’s the emotional point in the competition when stars dedicate dances to people who’ve profoundly impacted their lives. And prepare yourselves: Julia Stiles is dancing to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” in homage to Heath Ledger’s iconic performance in 10 Things I Hate About You.

Meredith is the Managing Editor at Pix Media and has been covering TV, movies, podcasts, and books for 8 years. Raised on VH1's I Love the... series, E! True Hollywood Stories, and The Real Housewives, Meredith has been fluent in pop culture since infancy. She religiously watches every Bravo show, lives for HBO Sunday nights, goes deep on reality-scandal discourse, and has a TBR that is physically taking over her apartment.  

Currently watching: Dancing with the Stars