You Can See Everything First Reviews: Riveting, Ambitious, Entertaining, and Absolutely Brilliant
Critics say Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's portrait of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is deeply thought-provoking and completely enthralling, led by Fielder's trademark deadpan delivery and Oppenheim's filmmaking flair.
If you thought there was nothing more to say about disgraced entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim invite you to reconsider. Thanks to a surprising and unlikely turn of events, the duo, individually known for gonzo documentary projects like The Rehearsal and Ren Faire, were invited to personally chronicle the month leading up to Holmes’ incarceration for fraud. Fielder, Oppenheim, and a small camera crew were given intimate access to Holmes and her partner Billy Evans, living inside their home, documenting their everyday lives, and interviewing them extensively. The end result is You Can See Everything.
The film, which took three years to complete, recently debuted at the Telluride Film Festival with a mysterious surprise screening, and critics are now weighing in, calling it riveting, entertaining, uncomfortable, and thought-provoking. They say it’s best enjoyed by going in completely blind, and it promises to inspire countless conversations.
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Here’s what critics are saying about You Can See Everything:
More than anything, You Can See Everything is a film that should be recommended without being spoiled. It has micro-moments that are awe-inspiring on a macro-level. It is formally experimental and relentlessly entertaining. The laughs feel bad and the embarrassment feels good. Fielder not only challenges what a documentary is but dares the viewer to interpret the film in a specific way.
– Jay Ledbetter, AwardsWatch
Mr. Fielder’s conversations with [Elizabeth Holmes] and Mr. Evans are so revealing, unflattering and bizarrely enthralling that this film promises to be the talk of the fall. With co-director Lance Oppenheim, Mr. Fielder gets around the restrictions on his access to the locked-up Ms. Holmes with his customary hilarious meta-narrative brilliance.
– Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal
A triumphant, riveting, and continually shape-shifting piece of creative non-fiction with curiosity and a playful sense of uncomfortable humor that will be no surprise to anyone familiar with Fielder’s work, it’s the kind of documentary that is persistently inquisitive and skeptical: both about its alarmingly wide-eyed subject who often refuses to blink, and the process of documentary filmmaking itself.
– Tomris Laffly, RogerEbert.com
Fielder’s presence in front of the camera… also means You Can See Everything dispenses with any pretense of “objectivity.” What it aims for, instead, is a kind of authenticity… You Can See Everything reaches for accuracy in its portrayal of a much talked-about figure. It ends up asking, with plenty of humor but no small amount of wisdom, what “accuracy” would even look like in the first place.
– Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter
Almost immediately, it’s evident that You Can See Everything pushes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking, and somehow, even after 174 minutes, it leaves us hungry and curious for more… For how disquieting it is, the film never goes too long without forcing a laugh. Fielder’s side-eye, always directed at Evans, gives viewers insight into his position, while Oppenheim’s expertise in feature narrative and documentary filmmaking elevates the film’s craft. Together, the duo keeps us on the edge of our seats, glued to the screen.
– Cortlyn Kelly, IndieWire
The fact that Fielder and Oppenheim had any access to the controversial Theranos founder is remarkable. What they chronicle after she enters prison is astounding… Fielder and Oppenheim have crafted a remarkable and at times brilliant piece of filmmaking… That being said, are the filmmakers somewhat precious? A bit, yes. Is this runtime absolutely necessary? No, but the second half is so enthralling, the twists and turns so entertaining, the questions the movie asks are so fascinating, the hypocrisy they uncover so deranged, you’ll forgive their indulgences.
– Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist
The mystery of Elizabeth Holmes and the not-to-be-trusted Billy goes to new levels, and Fielder and Oppenheim manage to find an astonishingly clever second act that we won’t spoil here. You also will not be disappointed to see just how this filmmaking team and Fielder really dig up the secrets and lies(?) involving a woman no one was expecting to meet again for a very long time.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
You Can See Everything is just about the furthest thing from a “pure” documentary you’ve ever seen. That’s part of its appeal — it’s a one-of-a-kind reality-TV-as-hangout-movie psychodrama circus. Yet it’s been made with a spirit of true inquiry, driven by Fielder’s acidly quizzical personality (as an onscreen interviewer, he’s got the most drop-dead deadpan since Steven Wright), and it gets its hooks in you.
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety
I sat down only knowing that Fielder had made a 174 minute documentary about Elizabeth Holmes. Nearly three hours later, my jaw was on the floor and my breath had been taken away. This is not just one of the very best films at Telluride this year, it’s arguably one of the most stunning documentaries ever made..
– Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
Ultimately, You Can See Everything is a troubling and undeniably gripping work. It succeeds not simply because it uncovers new things about Elizabeth Holmes but, more importantly, because it understands how elusive such truth can be. Fielder and Oppenheim occasionally stumble under the weight of their own ambitions, and the film’s blind spots… keep it from being something I can entirely cheer or celebrate. But its willingness to sit with contradiction, to interrogate the stories we tell about guilt, power, gender, punishment, and public spectacle, gives the movie a force that is difficult to shake.
– J. Don Birnam, Next Best Picture
You Can See Everything opens in theaters on October 16, 2026.
Thumbnail image by A24
