A24 has rolled out the trailer for “You Can See Everything,” the Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim documentary that went from total secret to the most talked-about title at Telluride in a single night.
The 174-minute film, which centers on Elizabeth Holmes, arrived alongside its Telluride premiere to wild reactions. Now, with a New York Film Festival screening upcoming, and a firm release date locked in, the campaign is officially underway.
The trailer is every bit as unnerving as the earlier teaser: deeply disquieting, with strange lighting, extreme close-ups, and odd eye contact, all made more uncanny by the fact that this is apparently the real Holmes. Her presence is unsettling, especially her wide-eyed stare and a single tear she seems to shed on command. I recommend reading as little as possible about this film as it apparently has many surprises in store for the viewer.
The setup is as strange as anything Fielder has attempted. According to the NYFF synopsis, the film was made in secret over four years, beginning when Holmes and her partner, William “Billy” Evans, invited Fielder into their home to live with them and start recording just 34 days before her incarceration. The couple profess her innocence, and the festival’s description teases the question of whether it’s all an elaborate ruse — or something even stranger.
“I don’t have anything to deceive you on,” Holmes tells Fielder in the trailer. “Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.”
A24 reportedly greenlit the film with no guarantee it would ever be released and didn’t announce it until the night it premiered at Telluride.That Telluride unveiling paid off. The film became an instant sensation, drawing strong buzz, enthusiastic reviews and immediate Oscar talk, and it currently sits at 95 on Metacritic. Fielder himself seems no less baffled than audiences. At the post-screening Telluride Q&A, moderated by Emma Stone, he said he still doesn’t quite know what he went through, and that the question of why Holmes and Evans wanted him there messed with his head.
There’s also the matter of what, exactly, this film is. Some have suggested roughly half the runtime is documentary and the other half is …something else entirely, prompting questions about whether it qualifies as a full-fledged doc. A24, for its part, has asked me to refer to the film as a “documentary” rather than a “hybrid.”
A24 has set an October 16 theatrical release. The film is also a key piece of the distributor’s awards push. A24 appears intent on campaigning hard, with a potential Oscar slate that also includes “The Debut,” “The Invite,” and “Club Kid.”