Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Hits Theaters With Perfect Score

The Elizabeth Holmes documentary everyone has been whispering about finally reaches theaters this week, and the early verdict from critics is borderline unhinged in the best way. "You Can See Everything," co-directed by comedian Nathan Fielder and filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, opens in limited release on Friday, according to the Associated Press, with a wider rollout planned for later this month.

If the name Theranos still gives you secondhand stress, here is the quick refresher. Holmes founded a blood-testing startup that promised to run a huge range of diagnostics from a few droplets taken from a fingertip. The technology never worked as advertised, and she was convicted of defrauding investors. According to The Independent, she was sentenced to eleven years and began serving her time at a Texas facility in May of the year after her conviction.

A Secret Film Shot Over Three Years

What makes this Elizabeth Holmes documentary different from the podcasts, books and prestige miniseries that came before it is the access. Holmes and her partner Billy Evans invited a film crew into their rented home in Del Mar, California, in the final stretch before she reported to prison. AP film writer Lindsey Bahr notes that they wanted to show the public the "real" Holmes and believed earlier portrayals were inaccurate.

The crew they chose was not exactly conventional. Fielder is the deadpan mind behind "Nathan for You" and "The Rehearsal," shows that deliberately blur fiction and reality. Oppenheim directed the recent drama "Primetime." Together they filmed the couple with their two young children, and the AP review says Fielder was even invited to stay at the house, an offer he declined at first and then accepted about twenty days in.

The film follows Holmes through the thirty-four days before she went to prison, and it was shot in secret over three years. Its existence stayed hidden until a surprise, no-phones screening at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, where attendees locked their phones away. That mystery is a big part of why the internet spiraled the moment the first teaser dropped.

Critics Are Calling It The Film Of The Year

The reviews are doing a lot of shouting. The Independent reports that the documentary landed a perfect critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of release, plus a Metacritic score of ninety-seven, which carries the label "universal acclaim." Forbes also flagged the perfect Rotten Tomatoes reading, noting that critics from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone had praised it after the Telluride debut.

The Guardian called it a "modern masterpiece of deceit" and wrote that the hype is deserved, describing the movie as "a stupefying and glorious destabilising hall of psychological mirrors." The Daily Beast went even bigger, arguing it stands shoulder to shoulder with the all-time greats of the documentary form. Variety, meanwhile, described it as a "one-of-a-kind reality-TV-as-hangout-movie psychodrama circus."

Why It Does Not Feel Like A Normal Documentary

Even the people raving about it admit it is hard to categorize. The AP review calls it part performance art, part documentary, and says it is "wildly entertaining, confounding and wholly unique." Bahr adds that she is not sure an interest in Holmes is even a prerequisite for enjoying it.

That slipperiness is the point. The film is more than three hours of confrontations, reenactments and awkward silences in which nobody is quite sure who is performing for whom. Screen Daily praised it for showing the fallacy of reality in art while acknowledging that everyone involved, including the filmmakers, Holmes and Evans, distorts the truth for their own purposes. Fielder himself said at the New York Film Festival premiere that he is still struggling to understand what he went through, according to the Independent.

One of the most talked-about moments in the marketing is a trailer line in which Holmes tells Fielder, "I don't have anything to deceive you on," before asking why she would deceive him at all. Watching a comedian known for elaborate stunts try to pin down one of the most famous fraud figures of the last decade is exactly the kind of collision that makes a movie go viral before anyone has seen it.

What Gen Z Should Know Before Buying A Ticket

First, spoilers are a real concern. Fielder and Oppenheim publicly asked audiences not to discuss the film in too much detail, and the ticket frenzy at the New York premiere made headlines of its own. If you want the full experience, stay off the group chat until you have watched it.

Second, the rollout is staggered. A24 is releasing the film in select theaters first, and Forbes reports a wide opening arrives on the twenty-third. UK audiences have to wait until the twentieth of next month, so expect plenty of spoiler-dodging across time zones. For more on what is hitting screens, check the movies section on this site.

Third, this is a long sit. At nearly three hours, it demands patience, but the reviews suggest the payoff is the kind of conversation that keeps going long after the credits. For a generation raised on scam documentaries, startup cautionary tales and influencer meltdowns, this one looks like the ultimate stress test of how much we can trust anything on a screen.

Whatever you think of Holmes, the film seems built to make viewers question their own certainty. Read the AP review at apnews.com and the Independent coverage at independent.co.uk if you want a taste without the spoilers.