Nathan Fielder has become one of the greatest arbiters of what is—or isn’t—the truth. Fielder, whose mainstream career unofficially kicked off with his show Nathan for You, a dry, quasi-documentary, quasi-scripted, quasi-spoof of shows like Undercover Boss, has found a way to level up with each project he’s made over the course of his still relatively short career, each step of the way inviting audiences to not only question the reality of what he’s bringing to the screen, but their own stances and ways of thinking about things broadly.
The road for Fielder has included HBO’s The Rehearsal (another often surreal, often Lynchian project that presents as real, but on a subtextual level asks viewers to question whether any of what he’s depicting was really happening as it was shown) and The Curse, a Showtime/Paramount+ series that he starred in and co-created alongside Emma Stone and Benny Safdie. That show was, surprise, surprise, incredibly thoughtful, layered, and, ultimately, surreal when it comes to its underlying themes of sincerity and intention.
In a way, all of this has led Fielder to his latest project, the new A24 documentary You Can See Everything. The subject is a fitting one for Fielder: Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos CEO and convicted fraudster who was the subject of books (Bad Blood) and television shows (The Dropout) about her misdeeds. It makes total sense that someone famous for skirting the truth would be of interest for Fielder, a creator who has now spent so much time examining not only the truth, but what audiences might accept as the truth even given some reason not to.
In 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in federal prison. That’s where You Can See Everything comes in: Holmes and her new husband Billy Evans invited Fielder (and a film crew, led by co-director Lance Oppenheim) to join them in a home they were renting for complete access during the 34 days before she reported to federal prison in Bryan, Texas, in May 2023. And the film begins there.
And, quite frankly, if you’re considering seeing You Can See Everything, it’s best to leave it there. Fielder gets the access he was promised in the movie, but the joy of the film isn’t only in this exclusive vision of such a notable figure, but how an artist with such a relationship to the truth engages with someone who so notably has, seemingly, bent it. We also get to see Holmes and Evans shot as human beings, removed from any of the prior media circuses that have surrounded them. Fielder and Oppenheim put a fair camera to everything and let the camera do what was promised: See everything.
You Can See Everything has been one of the best-reviewed films of the year, and it lives up to the billing. Just when you think you understand what’s happening and what’s going to happen, you’ll be quickly proven wrong. Just when you think you have a handle on who someone is and what they’re all about… you’ll quickly be proven wrong. The movie is three hours long, which, of course, we know seems daunting. But by the time it ends, you’ll wish it was going on for three hours more.
Below, we answer some of your questions about You Can See Everything—without spoiling any of the movie’s major twists or turns.
So What Is You Can See Everything Actually About?
You Can See Everything is, in essence, two movies in one. The first half of the movie is what the trailer and promotional materials for the movie billed: Nathan Fielder joins Elizabeth Holmes (and her new husband Billy Evans) in a home they rented for the 34 days before she reported to federal prison in 2023. This proves to be just as compelling as you’d imagine, as Holmes and Evans are both completely idiosyncratic characters. Moments like when Fielder shows Holmes Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” bit are instant classics.
Eventually Holmes reports to prison in Bryan, Texas, and the movie is not even halfway over. It’s at this point that your eyebrow should raise, and you do the ‘leaning forward in seat’ meme—because this is when You Can See Everything gets truly wild. The timeline jumps forward two hours, and Nathan Fielder gets up to some of his mind-bending, Rehearsal-type business. At this point, we see some people’s true colors, and also meet some other unexpected guests and surprises in the movie. This second part of the movie is what will blow your mind, and leave you thinking long after the credits begin to roll.
You Can See Everything should be an absolute lock for a number of Oscar nominations, including the Best Documentary Feature category. And it should be a strong contender in one of the acting categories for one person whose appearance we will not be spoiling in this story.
Who Is Nathan Fielder Again? Who Is Lance Oppenheim?
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim are the co-directors of You Can See Everything, and both have been key figures in American film and television culture for the last decade.
Fielder is a Canadian-born actor and director (and childhood friend of Seth Rogen) who rose to fame as the creator and star of Comedy Central’s Nathan for You. He’s dabbled in acting here and there—including a role as a limo driver in Rogen’s underrated holiday comedy The Night Before and in the sensational limited series The Curse—but his real calling has come in mind-bending documentary/comedy series like The Rehearsal. In season 2 of The Rehearsal, for example, Fielder actually got his pilot’s license while exploring the aviation industry. (And that was filmed between part 1 and part 2 of You Can See Everything, which is just bananas.)
Oppenheim, who is only 30, has also established himself as one of the best documentarians in the business. His movies Some Kind of Heaven and Spermworld along with his HBO series Ren Faire are deeply layered portrayals of very real people in very real situations; he shoots these documentaries in styles completely different from anyone else, though, lighting them like cinematic spectacles rather than what you probably think of as a documentary in your mind. (Some of the cinematography in You Can See Everything is unbelievably beautiful.)
Primetime, A24’s film about Chris Hansen and To Catch a Predator that came out last month and starred Robert Pattinson, Skyler Gisondo, and Merritt Wever, was Oppenheim’s scripted feature debut.
Do I Need to Know Anything Beforehand?
It probably helps to have information on Elizabeth Holmes’s case—which we recommend getting from any number of sources: The Dropout was the name of the Hulu series that starred Amanda Seyfried as Holmes, but it was also a well-researched and reported podcast that served as the show’s basis. There’s also an HBO documentary called The Inventor and a book called Bad Blood. Any of this would make for a good source for the crimes Holmes was accused of committing. The movie also includes a very brief recap of her case in the early going—not exhaustive, but enough to get the idea.
It does also make sense to have an idea of who Fielder is, what he does, and how he engages with his subjects. We recommend HBO’s The Rehearsal for that, but it’s not 100 percent necessary to enjoy and appreciate the film.
Is You Can See Everything Real?
That’s the question, isn’t it? You Can See Everything explores the idea of truth, lies, perspective, and even documentary filmmaking itself. If it makes the most sense to you to take all of You Can See Everything at face value, then please go for it. If you feel the need to question everything, well, that’s okay too. That’s what makes Fielder’s work so unique and so immersive—you can think about it about 100 different ways, and no understanding or interpretation is wrong. It’s set up to feel like a kaleidoscope. You can understand something one way, but maybe something pops up, and suddenly you can’t think about it that way anymore. That’s the point—and that’s what you’ll go home thinking about.
Evan is the culture editor for Men's Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn't.