Movie Review: You Can See Everything

4.5 stars out of 5

I’ll follow Nathan Fielder pretty much everywhere. For me, that started back in 2011 when he played “Nathan” on TV’s Jon Benjamin Has a Van. His project that I’ve enjoyed the least was The Curse with Emma Stone, yet, I still liked it. So, when I saw that Nathan had made a surprise feature documentary about Elizabeth Holmes — I’d watched the HBO Theranos documentary but not the Hulu docudrama — I knew I’d see it right away.

Unless you’ve lived under a pop-culture rock for the past 10 years and 10 days, you know that Elizabeth Holmes was positioned as — or positioned herself as, and this difference is at the heart of Fielder’s film — a young female Steve Jobs. Her product: a small device that could take a blood sample and from that, diagnose any illness out there. Saving countless lives worldwide! Silicon Valley med-tech went apeshit, investors poured a ton of money into her “Theranos” project, and then found out, no, there was no such working device. She was arrested and jailed on federal charges for fraud.

This film begins a little over a month before her 10-year prison sentence begins. I won’t discuss too much of what happens, but suffice to say Elizabeth and her baby-daddy Billy Evans have allowed Nathan (and a small film crew, including co-director Lance Oppenheim) incredible access, especially from someone who hasn’t been interviewed in years. And I’ll also say that Elizabeth consistently denies any wrongdoing; she and Billy blame this whole mishegas on a communication mix-up. Nathan likens it to the “Who’s the First” routine, or I might also suggest Bill Clinton’s low-point quote, “It depends what your definition of is is.”

If you go into this movie expecting big laughs or blockbuster revelations, you will be disappointed. But if you settle in and get more comfortable with the quirks of Nathan, Elizabeth, and Billy — mind you, I never got fully comfortable with any of them, which I think is another of the movie’s points: These people are a little goofy! — your payoff is a fascinating film, unlike anything I’ve seen before.

A central question here is, to quote the Queen of Soul: Who’s zoomin’ who? Did Elizabeth manipulate the world? Is she manipulating Billy, or is Billy manipulating her? Are they trying to manipulate the public, to “rehabilitate the brand,” with Nathan’s help? Is Nathan manipulating them for entertainment’s sake? We’re in a movie where Amanda Seyfried — who played Elizabeth Holmes in the Hulu series — shows up and seems like the voice of reason. Huh? Billy seems like the bad guy, or at least a bad guy, but is that just distracting us from the sins of Elizabeth and her big teary blue-eyed “Who, me?” act? (But is it an act?) Nathan is certainly charmed by her — in the trailer it had looked to me like they might kiss. Jeez I don’t know! Go see this and get all wonderfully confused for yourself. I guess we’re not much closer to the introduction of a compact, life-saving medical device but, oh well, that’s entertainment!