You Can See Everything (M) – 174 minutes
Touted as a breakthrough health technology company, Theranos Inc. was an American privately held corporation founded in 2003 by 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes.
Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, resulting in a US$9 billion valuation at its peak in 2013 and 2014.
In 2015, Forbes named Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the United States.
In June 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Holmes and Theranos’ former chief operating officer and her ex, long-term romantic partner Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani on fraud charges.
On 3rd January, 2022, Holmes was found guilty of four counts of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Balwani was also found guilty.
She was subsequently sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison, which she began serving on 30th May, 2023.
Balwani was given 12 years and 11 months, plus three years’ probation.
But You Can See Everything is not his story, rather hers.
Thirty-four days before Holmes was jailed, she invited a documentary film crew to record her every move.
So it was that directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim came to make this remarkable doco in which Holmes maintains her innocence.
In fact, she says never tried to deceive anyone.
By then she was well ensconced in a relationship with Billy Evans.
They met at a friend’s party on 7th October, 2017 and Holmes claims in the documentary that it was love at first sight.
When the documentarians arrived, Holmes had recently given birth to their second child.
Fielder not only directs but is front and centre throughout.
He questions Holmes, Evans, Holmes’ father Christian and the woman who portrayed Holmes in the 2022 TV mini-series The Dropout, Amanda Seyfried.
In fact, he not only engages Seyfried in conversation, but asks her to reenact scenes as Holmes when the actual interactions couldn’t be filmed.
For the first hour of this nearly three-hour doco, Fielder is ensconced with Holmes, Evans and their children in a beachfront rental in San Diego as her prison date draws ever closer.
Theranos claimed to have developed devices to automate and miniaturise blood tests using microscopic blood volumes.
In the documentary, Fielder quizzes Holmes repeatedly about just how capable these devices were. Holmes’ answers leave wriggle room for interpretation.
She comes across as highly likeable, whereas Evans is seen as far more prickly, self-aggrandising and controlling.
A pivot point comes later when Evans is seen to negotiate a deal with the producers that should the documentary make money, he and Holmes would share in the spoils.
That is regarded as highly unusual.
Holmes and Evans are also seen watching part of an episode of The Dropout, until Holmes can’t bear to see any more, as a scene comes up featuring her with Balwani.
We see Holmes taken in custody at Federal Prison Camp Bryon in Texas.
It is then that Fielder turns to Seyfried, even bringing her to the beachside holiday rental where he interviewed and observed Holmes and Evans.
Seyfried has some choice, less than charitable words to say about Evans, who she regards as highly manipulative.
I should add that one of the more gobsmacking revelations in this doco is how Evans has taken over the power of attorney for Holmes, enabling him to control her image.
Seyfried questions whether Holmes is suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
One of the works’ great strengths is the close up and extreme close-up cinematography of David Bolen.
So, too, the extraordinary reenactments by Seyfried opposite Fielder.
And what are you left with? You be the judge.
Was Holmes wrongly convicted, is she incredibly naïve or whip smart and a great actor?
As for Evans, who maintains he is as one with Holmes, how does he come out of this? Let’s just say the documentary doesn’t do him any favours.
You Can See Everything will take a power of beating for Best Documentary Feature at the 2027 Academy Awards.
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