I've just seen what I've been told is 'Everything'

Nathan Fielder (left) questions Elizabeth Holmes in You Can See Everything.

What the hell did I just watch? 

But can you, really?

If it's possible to emerge from a three-hour movie knowing less about its subject than you did going in, then that's the experience I had watching Nathan Fielder's You Can See Everything, his supposedly all-access look at now-imprisoned Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. 

After emerging from this surprisingly dreamlike and artsy film, I'm not sure if Holmes is a master manipulator or someone who genuinely cannot distinguish lies from the truth. I'm not sure how sincere Nathan Fielder, known for his deadpan demeanor and high-concept stunts/pranks (like Dumb Starbucks), intends this film to be. I'm not even 100% sure how to pronounce the name of actress Amanda Seyfried, who famously portrayed Holmes in Hulu's The Dropout and who reprises the role here. And, yes, that last one comes up as an issue in the film.

Is this movie a documentary about Holmes, revealing the flesh-and-blood woman behind the scandalous headlines? Sort of, though the lady herself disappears (to a Texas prison) about halfway through and is "present" only through brief phone calls and a hologram after that. Is it a meta-narrative about Fielder trying to make a movie about Holmes? Sort of, though Fielder doesn't really let us in on his editing process (which must have been an ordeal in and of itself). Is it a sequel to The Dropout? Again, sort of, though Seyfried is the only returning cast member from that series. Is it a three-hour meditation on the slippery, elusive nature of truth itself? That may be the most accurate label I can give it.

I suppose, like everyone who saw the bizarre trailer for You Can See Everything, I went into this movie hoping to learn more about Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley siren who somehow talked smart, accomplished people into financing her nonfunctioning blood-testing machine. Did I get it? I can't be sure. If Holmes is still a con artist and everything she does is an act, then it's a damned good act. The woman in this movie speaks tenderly, cries easily, and looks people directly in the eyes when she converses with them. In her interactions with her two young children, Holmes is as sweet and genuine and nurturing as can be. On the other hand, when she talks about the failures of Theranos, her logic is so convoluted that I defy anyone to follow it.

Can you trust this man?

Meanwhile, Nathan Fielder himself is another enigma. This movie is as much about him as it is about Elizabeth Holmes. Prior to You Can See Everything, Fielder was arguably best known for the Comedy Central series Nathan for You, in which he would straight-facedly suggest outrageous gimmicks and promotions to various small businesses. The whole point of that show was that Nathan could talk people into patently ridiculous ideas by presenting them as seriously as possible.

Is Nathan Fielder doing that here? Is he playing us all for chumps? Or is this the first completely earnest work of his career? Toward the end of the film, there is the suggestion that Fielder has developed a deep affection for Elizabeth Holmes and that this may be affecting his objectivity as a documentarian. How true any of this is, however, I cannot guess. Fielder's face and voice betray almost nothing.

(By the way, if you go into this movie expecting it to be a comedy, you will be disappointed or bewlidered. There are scattered moments of amusement—the mattress scene comes to mind—but a laugh riot, this is not. Adjust your expectations accordingly.)

I haven't even gotten to the most interesting person (character?) in this film: Billy Evans, Elizabeth Holmes' live-in boyfriend, business partner, and the father of her children. The two are not legally wed, but he vows to stay faithful to her during her prison stay. You will likely emerge from You Can See Everything deeply disliking and distrusting Billy. The man we see in this film is vain, opportunistic, duplicitous, evasive, manipulative, and at times, scarily angry and impatient. We sometimes wonder what Elizabeth sees in him. But Billy's interactions with his children and with Elizabeth show a warmer, gentler side to his personality, and these moments do not seem performative or inauthentic. 

There is so much in You Can See Everything that I can scarcely describe it all to you. I could, for instance, talk about how Amanda Seyfried becomes so deeply involved in this story that she is (along with Elizabeth, Billy, and Nathan) among its four main characters. Or I could talk about Elizabeth's mournful yet loving parents, and how they reminded me of the unfortunate mother and father in Joyce Carol Oates' play Tone Clusters (1990). I could talk about how Elizabeth has somehow not given up on her original dream of a blood-testing machine and talks frequently of "getting the band back together." I could even talk of how this movie uses classic footage of Abbott & Costello to illustrate one of its main points.

But I think the best course of action would be for me to say that, if any of what I've written so far intrigues you, carve out some time in your schedule to see You Can See Everything and draw your own conclusions... if you can.