A film built around a fraud conviction

Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim co-directed You Can See Everything, a documentary that runs close to three hours and follows Elizabeth Holmes in the weeks before she reports to federal prison. Holmes, the founder of Theranos, was found guilty in January 2022 of four fraud and conspiracy counts over false claims about her blood-testing device, and she received a sentence of more than 11 years. According to The Guardian, the filmmakers spent a month living alongside her at home. The documentary was filmed in secret over three years and shows her with her husband, Billy Evans, and their two young children. Its surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival came in September, and A24 opens the film in theaters on Friday, 16 October.

Fielder's comedy and track record

Fielder's comedy has long blended documentary technique with staged absurdity, which keeps viewers unsure what is real. His first series, Nathan for You, ran from 2013 to 2017 and grew out of a segment on the Canadian program This Hour Has 22 Minutes. In it he devised outlandish plans for struggling small businesses, such as a bar that staged an elaborate play so patrons could smoke indoors. The best-known stunt, Dumb Starbucks, helped a struggling Los Angeles coffee shop take on the look of the giant chain through parody laws, and it made national news. His later HBO series The Rehearsal, listed as running from 2022 to 2025, continued the mix of reality and surreality. Andrew Bricker, an associate professor of English at the University of Ghent, argues that Fielder has always played an altered version of himself, which leaves his real character hard to pin down.

Holmes on the record

Much of the film's tension comes from Fielder pressing Holmes about honesty. Early on, he asks whether she has ever lied to anyone, and when he asks her to confirm she has never lied, she replies, "I don't think so." Holmes says she has always tried to say what she believes and insists she did not lie about what her company's device could do.

In a trailer released in September, Holmes tells Fielder she has no reason to deceive him.

“I don't have anything to deceive you on. Of course I'm not deceiving you.”

When Fielder asks Evans whether he has ever suspected her of lying to him, Evans replies, "No. Never."

Box office and early reviews

A24's film is forecast to earn $7 million to $8 million from about 800 locations over its opening weekend, according to Variety, against a production cost of around $7 million. Paramount's video game adaptation Street Fighter has opening weekend estimates of $25 million to $35 million from 3,500 North American theaters, and Disney's survival thriller Whalefall is expected to earn $10 million to $12 million from more than 3,000 theaters.

You Can See Everything, low estimate7

You Can See Everything, high estimate8

Street Fighter, low estimate25

Street Fighter, high estimate35

Whalefall, low estimate10

Whalefall, high estimate12

You Can See Everything, low estimate

7 $ million

You Can See Everything, high estimate

8 $ million

Street Fighter, low estimate

25 $ million

Street Fighter, high estimate

35 $ million

Whalefall, low estimate

10 $ million

Whalefall, high estimate

12 $ million

Data from the article text

The same Variety projections expect Street Fighter to be the biggest box office success of the weekend. Early reviews are strong, with The Guardian calling the documentary a "modern masterpiece of deceit" and The Daily Beast placing it among the finest works in its form. Oppenheim, speaking to The Guardian, described the film as "head-spinning." Its New York Film Festival screening followed the Telluride premiere.