The more you see, the less you know.
Give Nathan Fielder the Best Director award because this was one of the best films I have seen this year. Co-directed with Lance Oppenheim, You Can See Everything follows Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her family before she goes to prison.
Before getting into the film, I want to give some background on Theranos. Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos; the company claimed it could run a wide range of diagnostic tests with just a drop of blood using a compact device. At its peak, it reached a valuation of 9-10 billion dollars. However, their technology never actually worked. Instead of using their own devices, they used 3rd party machines and faked data. They ended up being exposed in 2015, and by 2018, Theranos was dissolved. Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of multiple counts of fraud and was sentenced to federal prison.
This documentary had such a claustrophobic feeling. There were a lot of close-ups that made me feel super uncomfortable. When it came to Elizabeth’s scenes, I really couldn’t tell what she was thinking. It felt like she could see my soul while keeping hers completely guarded. When it came to her partner, Billy, I just couldn’t stand listening to him. He’s exactly the type of guy that I stay away from, and I felt trapped not being able to skip ahead. Nathan Fielder also tended to stand really close to them, which really added to the claustrophobic vibe. If I felt weirded out by the closeness, then I bet so did Elizabeth and Billy, which could have led to them reveling more than they intended.
Throughout the whole 2 hours and 54 minutes, I could not form a solid opinion on Elizabeth. At the start, I refused to believe anything that she would say. Before watching the film, I had already thought of her as a manipulator, so I was expecting her to spill out a bunch of nonsense, and she did say some nonsense. At one point, Elizabeth states that she has never lied to anyone before, as if she didn’t trick a whole lot of people into believing in Theranos. Halfway through, we find out that her partner has done things that made us wonder if Elizabeth is the real victim. We find out that Billy kept a pretty important part of the film contract from her. When they had their meeting to discuss the details of the contract, Elizabeth left the room, and Billy took that moment to let it be known that he wanted a cut of the money the film would make. It was assumed that Billy let her know about it. However, during one of Elizabeth’s interviews, she mentions that– something along the lines of– she isn’t making any money from this, which tells us that she had no idea about the money. We also find out some other questionable things that Billy has been doing (I’ll get to this later) that make Elizabeth look more like the victim than the manipulator. I started to empathize with her; it felt like this time, it was her being taken advantage of. Nathan ends up questioning her to see if she knows about the money, and she says that she did and that she’ll talk to Billy about it because her whole thing with Theranos and the film is that money was not the main goal. But the thing is, it was hard to tell if she was telling the truth because this interview takes place in prison, where no videoing is allowed, and Elizabeth is played by an actor. It was hard to tell if she actually knew about the money or was once again lying. Also, by the end of the film, it is implied that Nathan developed some sort of feelings towards Elizabeth and was withholding some information. By the end of the film, I believe that Elizabeth is a strong manipulator, but her failure with Theranos led to her being a target for a controlling man.
I did not like Billy at all. At the start, he just seems like a mad person. It looked like he didn’t want to be filmed at all, which is so hypocritical since both he and Elizabeth were the ones to approach Nathan to make this film. Right away, it is shown to us that Billy is a controlling person. There is this one scene where they are cooking eggs, and Billy– very rudely, in my opinion– takes over because he didn’t like how she was beating the eggs. He was always cutting off Elizabeth’s interviews by rushing her to stick to their schedule. We don’t find out just how controlling he is until Elizabeth goes to prison. It turns out that Billy has been posting on Twitter under Elizabeth's account without her knowing, and she was posting lots of crazy and unkind things. When he is asked how he got access to the account, he says that he has power of attorney over Elizabeth… Which is completely crazy because she is healthy and is able to provide and think for herself. Elizabeth granting Billy power of attorney means that he can control finances, social media, and her image. With this power, Billy has done many things that contradict what Elizabeth has said in the past, essentially ruining her image. I also like to point out that he is a big narcissist. He constantly thinks that his opinion is the most important in the room. At one point, he gets into an argument with someone, and he tells them that he’s “good at sex” and is “better read” than them. He also reveals that he’s a Charlie Kirk fan, and I think that speaks a lot about his character.
I went into the theater expecting to have my questions answered, and while they were, I was also left with more. Go see this in theaters; don’t miss out on another amazing 2026 film.
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