The announcement and teaser for A24’s “You Can See Everything,” a 174-minute documentary about Elizabeth Holmes from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, premiered last night at Telluride to wild reactions. The film hits theaters in October.
The premise alone—Holmes inviting a film crew into her life just 37 days before reporting to prison, with the project ultimately spanning three years—suggests this is going to be something much stranger than a conventional true-crime documentary. And Fielder’s involvement, given how extreme and unpredictable his previous work can be, is obviously the biggest draw.
The teaser feels unsettling, and that’s putting it lightly. Strange lighting, extreme close-ups, prolonged eye contact, and a deliberately surreal presentation. The fact that it’s apparently the real Holmes makes the footage even more uncanny. Has Fielder found a subject whose real-life behavior is so bizarre that it somehow goes beyond the uncomfortable comedy of “Nathan for You” and “The Rehearsal”?
Another question immediately comes to mind: What could Fielder have possibly done with Holmes for three years?
Holmes spent years convincing investors, journalists, employees and the public that they were seeing one thing, while Fielder has built a career around quietly watching people until they reveal something else. Putting these two personalities together feels like some kind of insane experiment. The fact that the footage already looks like psychological horror makes it even more irresistible.
So what should we expect? Telluride and A24 have asked press who attended yesterday’s secret screening not to reveal plot points. The early reactions have been extremely positive. This doesn’t sound like a conventional documentary built around straightforward interviews. It sounds more like two people trying to psychologically out-weird each other.
The teaser initially looks almost fictional, with Holmes coming across like an actress playing a horror-movie character. Her expressions and staring seem almost too cinematic. Then you remember that this is actually Elizabeth Holmes, which somehow makes it even more disturbing.
Deadline reviewed the film in cryptic fashion, noting its extraordinary access. Fielder retrieves Theranos machinery from storage, captures revealing encounters with Holmes, her partner and her parents, and eventually accompanies Holmes on her final drive to prison. His growing closeness with Holmes leaves even him baffled: “I don’t know why they wanted me there. Why am I there?”
And apparently, the film’s biggest surprise comes after Holmes enters prison, when what initially seems like the end of the story turns into a strange, increasingly noirish second act.
I love Fielder. “The Rehearsal” pushed his ideas further by turning reality itself into something he could stage, rehearse and manipulate. “The Curse” showed he could take those ideas into scripted drama and outright horror. But this Holmes documentary looks like something entirely different. And I have absolutely no idea what to expect.
