A documentary on a well-known person and the events surrounding them is a hard subject to tackle because the question has to be asked, what more can you possibly say about the subject that hasn’t said before. This is where Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder shine though, they tackle the tricky subject of Elziabeth Holmes – the founder of Theranos but not from the start of Theranos through her trial into eventual prison sentencing – but rather the 34 days before she is sent to prison. Holmes who notoriously did not want to be in public eye anymore after the charges laid against her – shockingly, weirdly, unprecedentedly allowed Fielder and Oppenheim to enter her home, that she shares with her child and husband Billy Evans for 34 days before she goes to prison. But not only access from a typical 9-5 day, she invited Nathan to live with them, allowing them to record every waking facet of their life for 34 days, everything, the cameras were rolling. Truly calling your documentary “You Can See Everything” is not a proverbial red herring it is a literal factual statement.
I Can See Everything is not your typical documentary. It is not your typical film. It is not your typical subject, film partnership, nothing about this is *typical* and that’s what makes this three hour documentary the most fascinating, weird, complex, intriguing masterpiece that it becomes. The hyperbole that has surrounded this since its surprise screening at Telluride was surprisingly not hyperbolic, this may be the movie of the century – it is going to change the way filmmaking is done not just for documentary but period. Oppenheim’s masterful directing is strictly at play here, but his quick cuts and deadpan looks at Nathan whose normally on the other end of, for lack of a better word, manipulating people showing that he is *maybe* getting taken for a ride is outright hilarious while deeply disturbing and confounding. There is just a way that watching this person who spent 3 years doing a show where he took the most ridiculous ideas of all time, like mail in rebates for cheaper gas but having to camp and climb a mountain, to Dumb Starbucks, to liquor stores selling alcohol to minors but only allowing to pick up the alcohol when they turned of age, Nathan has always had his finger on the proverbial button to create an environment for audiences to revel in and be delighted by, but he truly has met his match with Elizabeth Holmes.
For someone whose spent his career crafting perfect situations where he helps businesses or goes into business for himself (Dumb Starbucks), or helping people overcome their biggest fears/becoming someone else (The Rehearsal), Fielder cannot for the life of him figure out if he’s been manipulated or not. As for the audience, after three hours of sitting with Holmes we also have no idea if we were manipulated or not. The documentary doesn’t answer the basic question it sets out to ask which is simply “Did Elizabeth Holmes in fact commit the crimes she is accused of committing?” normally a documentary not being able to answer the rather basic question it sets out to ask would be frustrating, but the reveals and the sheer madness of everything that unfolds throughout You Can See Everything is too engaging and psychotic to possibly be anything other than astonished by what unfolds throughout the entire film. As well, having known a *little* about Holmes and Theranos proved not to be a detriment because the film answers anything and everything to keep you in the loop. It’s just so comprehensive and genuinely insane that it is hard to fathom any of it, and Holmes is either the world’s greatest manipulator or believes every word she says with one hundred percent integrity that it becomes impossible not to become engrossed in the sheer chaos that unfolds.
Moreover, the running time may prove to be a deter for some audiences, because honestly a three-hour documentary for most people sounds exhaustive, but nothing about You Can See Everything is exhaustive, it is the exact opposite. Three hours fly by in what feels like minutes, one’s jaw will always be unhinged and firmly placed on the ground, it is just a film that takes you by the shoulders and makes you witness everything unfold at once. In the best, most complimentary, insane way possible, You Can See Everything injects into your conscious and eyeballs like Alex’s torture scene from A Clockwork Orange, as you get lost in this sheer madness you won’t want to blink, turn away, miss a singular frame. While it won’t make you sick to your stomach like Alex, it will make you question every facet of your own existence and reality as you know it. Watching Nathan Fielder, someone who has spent his career operating at the proverbial precipice of ingenuity, be so completely caught off guard by someone who has been tried and convicted of scamming some of the wealthiest people on the planet is shocking. But one of the film’s greatest strengths is Oppenheim and Fielder’s ability to capture Nathan’s cadence, genuine reactions, and real-time processing of the information as he struggles to comprehend what he’s being told.
To make a statement such as “You Can See Everything” has to be taken with a grain of salt and an assumption that it is hyperbolic, but pulling the curtain back for 34 days allowing Fielder and Oppenheim to capture anything and everything, and then documenting the events following those 34 days (no further information into this to avoid spoilers) is a cinematic achievement unlike anything before it. To state that Oppenheim and Fielder have not only crafted one of the greatest pieces of cinematic ingenuity of the 21st century seems hyperbolic, but the reality is we can truly see everything with their truly unprecedented piece of film making that will surely redefine cinema as a whole for the future.
