What We Know About the Elizabeth Holmes Film You Can See Everything

"You Can See Everything" is a new film from A24 depicting Elizabeth Holmes' final days before she reported to federal prison, co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, according to a review by Ars Technica's Jennifer Ouellette. Holmes, the founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, was convicted on four counts of fraud and sentenced to 11 years after exhausting her appeals, the review notes.

Who made the film, and what is it about?

The project is co-directed by Fielder, known for absurdist, boundary-blurring nonfiction formats, and Oppenheim. Ars Technica describes the result as "a surreal, absurdist piece" built around access to Holmes in the stretch of time between her conviction and her imprisonment. The reviewer calls the film's second half "highly entertaining" but argues the overall project "runs in circles, yielding very little fresh or novel insight—into Holmes, personally, or much else."

Why did Holmes agree to participate?

According to the review, Holmes reached out to A24 herself to make the film after earlier portrayals — including HBO's "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley" from director Alex Gibney and Hulu's fictionalized miniseries "The Dropout" starring Amanda Seyfried — failed to depict her the way she wanted to be seen. Ouellette writes that Holmes believed "all she needed to do was 'speak her truth' in order to convince everyone else, too," an approach the review notes did not persuade the jury that convicted her, which deemed her the least credible witness at trial.

How does the film treat her guilt?

The review is blunt on this point. Ouellette writes:

"Holmes is still spouting all the same talking points and self-justifications, still playing the victim, dodging accountability, and affixing blame on anyone except herself, just as she did all the way through her trial."

The reviewer argues the film manufactures ambiguity by design, encouraging post-screening debate over its key scenes, but concludes "there's no real mystery here" about what happened at Theranos or why.

How does it compare with earlier Theranos portrayals?

Theranos was once valued at $9 billion, with Holmes marketed as the youngest self-made female billionaire in Silicon Valley, per the review. That rise and collapse has already been chronicled in Gibney's documentary, journalist John Carreyrou's 2018 book "Bad Blood," and the Hulu dramatization. Ars Technica frames "You Can See Everything" as Holmes' attempt to supply a version none of those prior accounts gave her: one shaped on her own terms.

What's next for the film this awards season?

Despite the critical pushback, Ars Technica notes the film has drawn "gushing enthusiasm" from many reviewers, with some calling it the best film of the year, and predicts it is "destined to be an awards-season darling."

What to watch:

• Whether more critics join what Ars Technica calls the "contrarian voices" pushing back on the early praise.
• How the film performs once nominations season begins.
• Whether Holmes or her representatives respond publicly to reviews questioning the film's framing of her guilt.

Full review: Ars Technica.

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