Nathan Fielder's 'You Can See Everything' Opens to Record Documentary Box Office as Elizabeth Holmes Calls From Prison

Record Opening and a Prison Phone Call

Nathan Fielder's documentary "You Can See Everything" opened Friday to $15 million from just 855 North American theaters, marking the biggest nonconcert documentary debut since Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004 and the most successful opening weekend for a documentary in over 20 years, The Hollywood Reporter reported. The film's release coincided with a revelation that Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos CEO now serving a federal prison sentence for fraud, called Fielder from prison right before the theatrical release — the first time the director and his documentary subject had spoken in half a year. (Variety; The Guardian)

Fielder's Reluctant On-Camera Role

Fielder told Wired he "definitely" didn't want to be on camera in the groundbreaking documentary, and the original plan was to stay in the background — similar to how he appears in the film's early lurking shots, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Holmes and her husband Billy Evans started asking him questions, drawing him into conversation, which shifted the project's direction. Fielder got involved after hearing that Holmes and Evans had tried and failed to pitch a documentary about themselves to A24. (Variety)

A Two-Part Structure Spanning 2023 to 2025

The film is structured as essentially two films in one: an elevated true crime documentary covering 2023, followed by an experiment unraveling the preconceptions of documentary itself that picks up in 2025 after Holmes has spent time in prison, The Guardian reported. The first half, if released as a standalone film, would probably have generated some attention and then faded as an artifact of a particular era of Silicon Valley celebrity — a briefly fascinating but inconclusive stunt. The back half is what makes "You Can See Everything" the film of the year, according to The Guardian's Adrian Horton.

Billy Evans as the Film's Antagonist

Billy Evans emerges as a central figure in the second half — portrayed as a "very 2020s villain, a tech bro with a possible drug problem and a god complex" who commissioned an AI hologram of his wife and continues to push "Theranos 2.0" from a WeWork, complete with a "LASERS" license plate, The Guardian reported. Evans appeared on the "All-In" podcast the day before the film opened in theaters and explained the couple's rationale behind letting Fielder and co-director Oppenheim into their home. The beach house where much of the filming took place was rented by Holmes and Evans. (Variety; The Hollywood Reporter)

Critical Acclaim and Oscar Buzz

Critical reception has been extraordinary. "You Can See Everything" currently holds a rare close-to-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, is among the highest-rated films of all time on Letterboxd, and has solid odds to become the first documentary ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, The Guardian reported. The film is described as a formally ambitious feat that not only pushes the boundaries of nonfiction cinema but speaks to a destabilizing present of endless, inescapable manipulation.

Amanda Seyfried and the "Scam Show" Landscape

Fielder recruited Amanda Seyfried, star of Hulu's 2022 series "The Dropout," for what The Guardian described as a shockingly game and possibly awards-worthy appearance. Seyfried oscillates between a conviction that "The Dropout" was a work of fiction grounded in fact, and that its liberties may have violated another person. The Guardian's review noted that "The Dropout, for what it's worth, was the best of a series of scam shows from 2022 that tried to turn the rise and fall of inflated 2010s tech companies such as Uber or WeWork into entertainment."

Whistleblower Tyler Shultz Challenges the Film

Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz, writing for STAT, argued that in "You Can See Everything," Elizabeth Holmes is still lying. Shultz, a scientist and venture partner who describes himself as a whistleblower by accident, detailed how the actual Edison device was an eight-channel pipette inside a black box using the same chemistry and detection methods used for blood tests since the 1970s, and that Theranos recorded little more than $100,000 in revenue in 2014. During her trial, before cameras arrived, Holmes was living in an estate listed at $125 million, while her husband's family owns a AAA 5-diamond resort on the Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. Shultz's essay did not include a response from the filmmakers.

What Comes Next

Holmes remains in federal prison after her fraud conviction, while her former partner Sunny Balwani was sentenced to nearly 13 years for his role in the fraud, Variety and STAT reported. The filmmakers moved in with the couple 34 days before Holmes went to prison, capturing a window of time that now forms the backbone of a documentary already being called a landmark in nonfiction cinema. With Oscar nomination voting approaching, the film's trajectory from secretive project to box office phenomenon to potential awards history will be the next development to watch.