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Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s wild Elizabeth Holmes documentary, “You Can See Everything,” screened at the New York Film Festival Wednesday night after it received rave reviews and Oscar buzz from its surprise
Telluride Film Festival premiere weeks ago.
The packed New York audience was laughing, gasping and cringing throughout the entire three-hour documentary, which takes several unexpected turns as it shows the days leading up to Holmes’ prison sentence and her family life with partner Billy Evans.
Holmes and Evans invited Fielder and Oppenheim into their home 34 days before the Theranos founder’s 11-year prison sentence for fraud. Despite being convicted of defrauding Theranos investors, Holmes has maintained her innocence as she stepped out of the public eye. “You Can See Everything” marks the first time she’s spoken publicly at length in years, but the documentary makes you question if she’s ever telling the truth.
In the post-screening Q&A, which avoided the many shocking scenes and spoilers in “You Can See Everything,” Fielder and Oppenheim explained how they met and got in touch with Holmes for the film. Oppenheim had cold-emailed Fielder after learning he’d watched part of his documentary “Some Kind of Heaven,” and the two filmmakers became friends. They had visited the Magic Castle together a few years ago, and a magician asked the audience for a celebrity’s name for a close-up magic trick. Someone suggested Elizabeth Holmes, which reminded Oppenheim that the Theranos fraudster had reached out to A24 about someone documenting her life. Fielder, who had read the 2018 novel “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,” was “fascinated” by Theranos’ downfall and set up a meeting with her via A24.
“When I met her, I remember having this weird experience where she seems so genuine at times. But then I’m like, ‘no,’ and clocking and tracking my thoughts and being like, ‘Okay, I know she’s a liar.’ It was a weird mental thing. From there, we were like, ‘Can we roll the dice on something if they were open to having cameras in?'” Fielder said.
Holmes and Evans agreed to let Fielder and Oppenheim film them, and A24 gave the small crew a chance to “pull the plug” on the doc if they couldn’t find a story to tell.
“It wasn’t until we started shooting that moments would happen — some of them are in the film — and then after Lance and I would talk about what we thought happened there,” Fielder said. “We’d completely disagree on what something meant to us and what we thought was happening. Then we were like, ‘Oh, this is really interesting. If we can’t agree on what’s happening, there’s something here.’ And our curiosity sort of just like drove us from there.”
“Every person that worked on this movie was going through a similar feeling of cognitive dissonance,” Oppenheim added. “We would unpack the day’s events, and no one could agree on the seemingly mundane moments that would transpire. Everyone had a different point of view. So Nathan and I started thinking, ‘If we can just try and get out of the way of this and capture this and attempt to bring people as close to that experience of being there as possible, then maybe there’s an interesting project to be made out of this.”
The first teaser for “You Can See Everything” went viral as the camera focused on Holmes’ face and she told Fielder, “I don’t have anything to deceive you on. Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.” After that, the even-more-bizarre full trailer showed Fielder moving in to live with Holmes and Evans 24/7, sitting on the bed with them and Holmes crying during an interview.
“I cannot tell you how weird it was that we were there,” Fielder said as the audience laughed. “Truly, to this day, we’re still like — anyways, sorry. I wouldn’t think I’d be the person you would want for your final period. I’m a nice person, I do believe, but I’m not the most comforting. You know what I mean? I think you know.”
Fielder had no answer when asked by the moderator why Holmes and Evans chose him to document their life.
“She said, ‘First and foremost, we see this as a human story,'” Fielder recalled. “It’s so hard to understand where they may have been coming from, but maybe there was a sense that inviting someone who was like a friend of theirs, no one would take that seriously. I don’t know, it’s so hard to speculate.”
Oppenheim compared the feeling to the 1979 movie “Stalker,” which featured a mystical zone that grants people’s innermost desires. “The laws of reality and everything that we thought was going on outside just evaporated, and no one could agree,” he said. “I feel like our our brains were scrambled. We were also unsure for so long if we even had anything that was worthwhile to make and put together.”
After breaking out with his comedy series “Nathan for You,” Fielder made an even bigger name for himself by blending documentary filmmaking with elaborate, scripted bits in HBO’s “The Rehearsal.” He also created, wrote, directed and starred in Showtime’s “The Curse.” “You Can See Everything” marks his feature directorial debut. He’s teamed up with Oppenheim, who’s also on a hot streak after last week’s release of “Primetime,” starring Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. Oppenheim has directed other documentaries like “Spermworld,” “Ren Faire” and “Some Kind of Heaven,” all focusing on niche, oddball communities like sperm donors, renaissance fair owners and retirement community members.
After the screening, Fielder and Oppenheim asked the audience to preserve the surprises and twists that “You Can See Everything” takes. Fans will have to wait until the film hits theaters on Oct. 16 to experience it for themselves.
