In ‘You Can See Everything,’ Elizabeth Holmes meets her equal in comedian Nathan Fielder

“Isn’t it weird that I like, did a TV amusement astir benignant of a concern scam, and you got successful occupation for like… a concern scam?” comedian and filmmaker Nathan Fielder mildly asks Elizabeth Holmes.

One period earlier the notorious Theranos CEO surrendered to statesman her eleven-year transgression fraud sentence successful 2023, Holmes and her hubby contacted A24 arsenic a last-ditch effort to exonerate her successful the nationalist eye, suggesting they nonstop a movie unit to papers her last days of freedom. Alongside manager Lance Oppenheim, Fielder — a cringe-comedy mastermind whose enactment often walks the enactment betwixt information and fabrication — embraced the intolerable task of figuring retired who the infamous Stanford dropout truly is.

“I ne'er really made that connection,” says Holmes. “I deliberation it’s a beauteous antithetic situation.”

No 1 is amended prepared than Fielder to probe the depths of Holmes’ psyche. His satirical docu-reality amusement “Nathan for You” catapulted him to cult stardom arsenic helium assumed the relation of an exaggerated, deadpan mentation of himself who tries to assistance struggling tiny concern by executing asinine interventions. In 1 early occurrence that went viral, Fielder convinces a java store to alteration its sanction to “Dumb Starbucks” arsenic a selling stunt, but consults a lawyer to assistance him toed the flimsy enactment of parody instrumentality and flight ineligible trouble.

“If you conscionable said that, you know, Theranos was a drama bit, possibly you could get disconnected scot free,” Fielder says to Holmes.

“It was real.”

“I was conscionable benignant of making a small joke. Maybe it was successful atrocious taste.”

We already cognize that Elizabeth Holmes is not innocent. What we inactive can’t fig out, though, is whether she really, genuinely believes it erstwhile she says she did thing wrong. Even arsenic she sat connected proceedings — listening to testimonies from investors who mislaid hundreds of millions of dollars, whistleblowers who were silenced erstwhile they flagged that Theranos’ humor investigating devices didn’t work, and patients who acted connected incorrect humor trial results — Holmes ne'er wavered.

Across Fielder’s assemblage of metatextual comedy, adjacent his astir reverent fans can’t rather fig retired erstwhile he’s acting, erstwhile he’s being himself, and if Fielder himself adjacent knows wherever to gully that enactment anymore.

In that way, Fielder is conscionable similar Holmes: aft implicit a decennary successful the nationalist eye, onlookers stay captivated by each of their ambiguous personas.

“The satellite believes a world astir maine that isn’t true,” she tells Fielder. “I cognize I didn’t perpetrate immoderate crime.”

[The remainder of this reappraisal contains spoilers.]

Early connected successful filming, The New York Times has conscionable published a profile of Holmes, which was wide criticized astatine the clip for allowing Holmes to represent herself arsenic an guiltless ma deprived of the accidental to ticker her kids turn up.

And yet, Holmes and her husband, edifice heir Billy Evans, were livid astir the article.

At 1 constituent successful an interview, Holmes tells the Times newsman that she wasn’t offended by histrion Amanda Seyfried’s portrayal of her successful Hulu’s miniseries “The Dropout” because, “They’re not playing me. They’re playing a quality I created.”

She and her hubby importune that the punctuation was taken retired of context. They assertion that they person grounds that Holmes really said, “They’re playing a quality they created,” relieving her from immoderate accusation that she admitted to concocting an inauthentic persona arsenic CEO of Theranos.

Fielder asks Evans aggregate times to stock this grounds truthful helium tin beryllium that Holmes was misquoted. He ne'er does.

Amanda Seyfried portrays Elizabeth Holmes successful “The Dropout”Image Credits:Beth Dubber/Hulu

Once Holmes reports to prison, Fielder is agonized arsenic helium tries to marque thing retired of his period of footage. He calls successful the cleanable sidekick to assistance him dissect her confounding behavior: the precise histrion who portrays her successful “The Dropout.”

Fielder plays Seyfried a brutal clip from his clip with Holmes, erstwhile helium tries watching “The Dropout” with the taxable of the bid itself. When they get to a tense country involving Holmes’ manipulative ex-boyfriend and erstwhile Theranos partner-in-crime Sunny Balwani — who is besides present successful situation — Holmes tin nary longer carnivore to ticker this fictional mentation of herself. She turns distant and cries.

In different words, Seyfried is watching Holmes respond to Seyfried’s portrayal of Holmes, who was astir apt besides playing a quality herself. But Seyfried is not the lone 1 creating a crude approximation of the existent Elizabeth. Evans has constructed a life-like AI avatar of his wife, trapped wrong of a ample vertical surface that helium wheels implicit to the meal array to beryllium with him and his kids arsenic though she’s really there.

The remainder of the movie is simply a constellation of colliding personas. Though it’s a non-fiction documentary, it’s wide that everyone progressive is, to immoderate extent, besides performing for the cameras. How could they not? Seyfried’s determination to recognize Holmes’ communicative seems pure, but it’s not mislaid connected the assemblage that she conscionable scored a starring relation successful 1 of the astir talked-about films of the year.

Meanwhile, Evans behaves successful specified an unfathomably egregious mode that helium whitethorn adjacent beryllium intentionally playing the villain to drum up sympathy for his reviled wife.

Evans knows that Fielder and Oppenheim are not convinced of Holmes’ innocence. This documentary volition not sway anyone to judge that his woman is being wrongly held successful national custody. But Evans makes himself look truthful appallingly unlikable that immoderate viewers whitethorn permission the theatre feeling atrocious for Holmes, seeing her arsenic a victim, and allowing her to double-down connected different persona she adopted portion connected trial: a harmless, docile pistillate who was manipulated by her ex-partner to obliviously archer a cascade of progressively harmful lies.

Once Holmes is successful jail, Fielder is not allowed to bring signaling devices erstwhile helium visits her, truthful helium tries to constitute a publication of their conversations from memory, struggling to accurately recreate the nuances of a speech wherever each past connection carries immense meaning. With Seyfried reprising her relation from “The Dropout,” we spot the brace signifier speechmaking the script, editing the connection arsenic Fielder tries to callback Holmes’ nonstop phrasing and delivery.

In quality arsenic Holmes, Seyfried says, “People deliberation Amanda’s amusement is simply a documentary. I get treated worse [in prison] due to the fact that of however she portrayed me.”

As she reads the lines, Seyfried breaks character.

“I didn’t bash that,” the histrion says. “She did that to herself.”