I kept waiting for You Can See Everything to reveal exactly where it draws the line between documentary and fiction, only to realize that blurring it may be the whole point. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim gain extraordinary access to Elizabeth Holmes, yet rather than simply letting her tell her side of the story, they probe the gaps between what she says, what the public knows, and what she may believe herself. The result is a documentary that keeps you wondering whether you’re watching an honest recollection, a carefully controlled performance, or an uneasy mix of both. Oppenheim’s intimate framing brings the camera strikingly close to Holmes and Billy Evans, while Fielder’s blunt, almost absurdly direct questions continually test the image they are trying to project. It is a remarkably strange way to revisit a story we thought we already knew.
The people inside that strange reality are just as compelling as the way Fielder and Oppenheim present them. Amanda Seyfried deserves credit for being willing to put herself out there and engage with the material so openly, even when I didn’t agree with everything she had to say. Billy Evans, Holmes’ now-infamous boyfriend, is given enough room for you to decide what to make of him, just as the film leaves the question of Holmes herself largely in the viewer’s hands. It never reduces either of them to easy true-crime caricatures, and that makes the film’s examination of ambition, self-deception, and truth considerably more interesting. I genuinely cannot think of another documentary that has made me question the boundaries of nonfiction this much. This is an astonishing achievement from Fielder and Oppenheim, and quite possibly the best thing A24 will ever release.
