Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything offers shocking access
A film titled You Can See Everything was unveiled with a screening at the Telluride Film Festival this week.
“Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a sceptical film crew to document her every move,” the film’s description reads. “What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.”
Organisers asked attendees to lock their phones in pouches before entering the theatre on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported, and warned that security guards with night-vision goggles would be watching for anyone with electronic devices.
A24, which produced the 174-minute documentary with directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, shared a trailer on social media. In it, Fielder and Holmes stare nearly unblinkingly into each other’s eyes, while she tells him: “I don’t have anything to deceive you on. Of course I’m not deceiving you… Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.”
“Okay. All right. Okay, good chat,” the cult comedian responds. The stare, which lingers for an uncanny amount of time, continues as eerie music swells in the trailer’s background. Holmes’ X account shared the clip on Monday, alongside the caption: “I’m always being real”.
In less than 24 hours, the trailer had more than 1.6 million views on YouTube.
Film critics in the audience at the secret Telluride screening called it “shocking”, “boundary-pushing” and has “to be seen to be believed”. Some praised it as one of the best movies of the festival or even the year.
“A riveting, continually shape-shifting piece of creative non-fiction that left me speechless. The less you know about it going in, the better,” wrote freelance film journalist Tomris Laffly on X.
The documentarians “delivered one of the most transfixing and jaw-dropping documentaries of ALL TIME”, wrote film critic Mark Johnson.
Daniel Howat, a writer for entertainment awards site Next Best Picture, called it “a work of genius”.
Holmes, 42, rose to prominence as a healthcare innovator and self-made business executive, only to fall from grace when reports revealed in 2015 that her blood-testing technology did not work as had been claimed. In 2022, she was convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges and sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. She reported to a prison camp in Texas in 2023.
Holmes’ saga has previously been depicted in the Hulu series The Dropout, starring Amanda Seyfried, and the HBO documentary The Inventor. Fielder is best known for his comedy TV series Nathan for You, The Curse and The Rehearsal.
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