You Can See Everything                 5 stars

In 2018 Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and CEO of the blood test startup Theranos, was convicted of defrauding investors over making false claims that their product could test for multiple diseases from a single drop of blood. Everyone can remember the fall of this seemingly brilliant entrepreneur who made the cover of Forbes magazine. Books, documentaries, podcasts and a mini-series have been made on the subject. Before her eleven-year prison sentence was to begin Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, invited the film company A24 to document her story in an attempt to rehabilitate her image. Thus, the documentary You Can See Everything begins with director Nathan Fielder visiting them in a San Diego cottage on the beach 46 days before the incarceration is to begin. What follows over the next three hours is one of the most fascinating documentaries I can remember. The movie can be thought of in three parts. In the first, Fielder questions Holmes and Evans about their circumstances and why he was even chosen to begin with. (Fielder’s background is a comedian, certainly not someone with knowledge of medical devices.) We can see that he must tread very lightly with his questioning as he must maintain trust while at the same time seeking to get into the mind of his host. Holmes is eager to engage, but when the subject of the device and the defrauding is discussed, it is clear that she does not believe she did anything illegal or immoral. The claim about the device’s capabilities is just a matter of semantics, a misunderstanding. She believes the device actually works despite the evidence. Fielder takes one occasion to show her the famous Abbott and Costello Who’s On First? comedy routine to show her how words and phrases could mean different things to different people, but she doesn’t seem to get the reason why it is funny. Holmes and Evans even talk about starting a new Theranos again. They are committed to the cause. What? Throughout their talks, Fielder and Holmes seem to connect, but you’re not sure if either is faking it. Finally, the film crew follows her to the Texas prison where she will serve her sentence. The second part picks up after Holmes has been in prison for two years with the film crew visiting Billy Evans at their house in Texas. There they find him actively pursuing the couple’s business interests. He has regular visits with Holmes and has taken over her X account, creating messages as if he were her. Evans has become a control freak telling the director what he can and cannot talk about while filming. In the final part, Fielder takes us back to the impetus of the film. He brings Amanda Seyfried, the actress who portrayed Holmes in the mini-series The Dropout, into the movie discussing the unusual situation. Seyfried becomes a stand-in for recreations of scenes that happened when Fielder and the executives began talks about the film. There we see how controlling Billy was from the start, so we wonder: Is he manipulating Holmes through this entire endeavor? Just how much does Holmes know about Billy’s demands? The recreated scenes continue with Seyfried as Holmes when Fielder gets permission to visit Holmes in prison alone. The questions only expand in this final meeting. Who is Elizabeth Holmes? Is she a misunderstood victim, a master manipulator or pathological liar? What is the truth about her? The audience must be the judge. Psychologists will be studying this case for years. Nathan Fielder has created a masterpiece of a documentary. Look for it to get plenty of attention when the awards season starts.