YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING (2026): The Truth Is Complicated

Here’s something I didn’t expect to be doing in 2026: seriously considering a nearly three-hour documentary about Elizabeth Holmes for one of the top five spots on my annual best-movies list.

And yet, here we are.

YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING, the extraordinary new documentary from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, is one of the most brilliantly constructed films I’ve seen this year. Not just documentaries. Films. Period.

It’s sharp. It’s crisp. It’s funny, uncomfortable, beautiful, unsettling, and so meticulously assembled that I found myself marveling at the filmmaking almost as much as the story unfolding on screen.

And the story? Sweet merciful heaven.

Just when I thought I understood what I was watching, the filmmakers would introduce another wrinkle, another perspective, another piece of information that made me reconsider everything that came before it.

By the final third, I was wondering what the hell kind of movie I’d wandered into.

Here’s the remarkable thing: YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING never demands that you reach a particular conclusion about its central subject.

It gives you the information, lays the pieces on the table, and leaves you to figure out what you believe.

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books from childhood? You’d reach a decision, flip to another page, and suddenly discover that everything you thought you knew had changed?

That’s this movie.

Except there’s no flipping back to page 37 because you accidentally got eaten by a dragon.

And unfortunately, there aren’t always satisfying answers.

Elizabeth Holmes: A Very Complicated American Story

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably familiar with Elizabeth Holmes.

The Stanford dropout became one of Silicon Valley’s most celebrated entrepreneurs after founding Theranos, a healthcare technology company that promised to revolutionize blood testing.

The idea was irresistible: perform a wide range of medical tests using just a tiny amount of blood, potentially transforming an industry and making healthcare more accessible to millions of people.

Investors lined up. Prominent businessmen joined the company’s orbit. Holmes appeared on magazine covers, delivered speeches, and became the poster child for the next generation of Silicon Valley innovators.

At its peak, Theranos was valued at approximately $9 billion.

There was just one rather significant problem.

The technology didn’t work as advertised.

The company collapsed amid investigations, lawsuits, and allegations of fraud. Holmes was eventually convicted on four federal counts related to defrauding investors and sentenced to more than eleven years in prison.

The story has already been explored through investigative journalism, documentaries, books, podcasts, and the Hulu miniseries THE DROPOUT, starring Amanda Seyfried.

So what could another movie possibly add?

As it turns out, quite a lot.

Thirty-Four Days Before Prison

The setup for YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING is almost absurdly compelling.

In the final 34 days before Holmes is scheduled to report to federal prison in May 2023, she and her partner, Billy Evans, invite Nathan Fielder and a small documentary crew into their lives.

Not for a quick interview.

Not for a couple of carefully staged conversations.

They essentially allow the filmmakers to move in.

The setting is a beachfront rental in Del Mar, just north of San Diego, where Holmes and Evans are living with their two young children.

Holmes wants to tell her story. She maintains that she never knowingly committed fraud and believes the public has misunderstood her intentions, her work, and the circumstances surrounding the downfall of Theranos.

Fielder, whose work on NATHAN FOR YOU and THE REHEARSAL has made him something of a master at exposing uncomfortable truths through seemingly ordinary conversations, isn’t particularly convinced.

And so begins one of the strangest games of cat and mouse I’ve seen in a documentary.

Fielder asks questions. Holmes answers. Sometimes the answers are straightforward. Sometimes they’re evasive. Sometimes they raise more questions than they resolve.

Billy Evans becomes an increasingly important presence, and the relationship between the three provides some of the movie’s most fascinating material.

Meanwhile, Oppenheim and Fielder continue documenting the couple’s lives as the date of Holmes’ incarceration draws closer.

We meet the filmmakers as participants in the story, not simply invisible observers. We see Holmes and Evans in moments of apparent vulnerability, domestic normalcy, frustration, and uncertainty.

And later, Amanda Seyfried and Christopher Abbott enter the film in ways I’m not going to spoil here.

Seyfried previously portrayed Holmes in THE DROPOUT, which makes her involvement especially fascinating. Abbott’s presence adds another layer to a film that is already challenging our understanding of what a documentary can be.

Trust me. The less you know about where this movie goes, the better.

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Documentary

What I love most about YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING is that it refuses to do our thinking for us.

That’s a surprisingly rare quality in documentary filmmaking.

So many documentaries seem determined to make sure audiences reach the same conclusion as the director. The music tells us when to be outraged. The editing tells us whom to distrust. The interviews are arranged to reinforce an argument that was probably established long before anyone picked up a camera.

I’m not suggesting that approach automatically makes for a bad movie. Some of the greatest documentaries ever made have a clear point of view.

But there’s something exhilarating about a film that refuses to hand you a neatly packaged answer.

Fielder and Oppenheim understand that their own presence changes the behavior of the people they’re filming. They also understand that editing, framing, and selecting which moments to include are inherently subjective decisions.

And instead of hiding those complications, they make them part of the movie.

You’re constantly being asked to reconsider what you’re watching.

Is Holmes telling the truth?

Does she genuinely believe the things she’s saying?

Is she manipulating the filmmakers?

Are the filmmakers manipulating her?

Are we, as audience members, bringing so many preconceived notions into the theater that we’re incapable of seeing anything objectively?

And perhaps most importantly, can any documentary actually show us everything?

Every time I thought I had an answer, another question appeared.

It’s a remarkable balancing act, and the filmmakers pull it off beautifully.

Guilty and a Victim? Both Things Can Be True.

I want to be careful here, because Elizabeth Holmes remains an enigma to me.

I don’t pretend to know what’s going on inside her head.

A federal jury found her guilty of defrauding investors. That’s an established fact. Her conviction doesn’t magically disappear because a documentary makes her seem more sympathetic.

But I also came away from YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING thinking about something that doesn’t always get enough attention when we discuss people who have committed serious wrongdoing.

A person can be responsible for terrible decisions and still be a victim of manipulation, exploitation, or abuse.

Those things are not mutually exclusive.

What I saw in this documentary was a woman who, in my interpretation, has spent considerable portions of her life navigating relationships with powerful men whose behavior often appears controlling, manipulative, or deeply self-serving.

And I’m not just talking about the men involved in the Theranos scandal.

Billy Evans’ behavior raises its own uncomfortable questions. So, at times, does Fielder’s.

There’s an unsettling power dynamic running throughout the film, involving access, control, money, reputation, and the ability to shape another person’s story.

Who gets to speak for Holmes?

Who decides which version of her becomes public?

Who benefits from telling her story?

And how much agency does she actually have over any of it?

None of these questions erase the harm caused by Theranos. Nor do they establish that every man in Holmes’ life has abused or manipulated her.

But I do believe the movie makes a compelling case for examining the complicated relationships and power structures surrounding her.

Holmes might be guilty.

In fact, the legal record establishes her guilt on the counts for which she was convicted.

But that doesn’t mean she cannot also have been victimized.

I think both realities deserve consideration, and what I appreciate most about this film is that it gives us the space to wrestle with that possibility without forcing a verdict.

A San Diego Rental House Has Never Looked This Good

Can we talk about how gorgeous this movie is?

Because, my God.

It’s relatively easy to make a sunset look beautiful. Point your camera toward the ocean as the sun disappears over the horizon, and congratulations, you’ve got yourself something suitable for a screensaver.

It’s considerably more difficult to make a largely indoor documentary, much of it set inside a rental house in Southern California, look this visually compelling.

Cinematographer David Bolen deserves a standing ovation.

The compositions are immaculate. The lighting is extraordinary. The framing gives ordinary domestic spaces an almost theatrical quality.

There are moments when the house feels warm and inviting, and others when the same rooms feel claustrophobic, sterile, or quietly threatening.

Windows become frames within frames. Doorways divide characters. Close-ups force us to study facial expressions that may or may not reveal anything at all.

It’s absolutely gorgeous.

More importantly, the cinematography is doing actual storytelling.

The visual language reinforces the central mystery. We can be physically close to someone, watching their every movement and studying their face, and still have absolutely no idea what they’re thinking.

That’s not just beautiful photography.

That’s filmmaking.

And the score by Ari Balouzian? Good grief.

It’s moody, hypnotic, occasionally ominous, and perfectly calibrated to a movie that frequently plays like a psychological thriller.

There’s a Hitchcockian quality to the entire production, as though we’re watching a mystery unfold without being entirely certain what the mystery actually is.

The editing by Adam Locke-Norton is equally impressive. This is a nearly three-hour documentary built largely around conversations, and yet I was completely riveted.

Sharp. Crisp. Impeccable.

And Then the Movie Takes Another Turn

I’m not going to spoil the final third of YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING.

I refuse.

There are developments in this movie that I absolutely did not have on my radar, and part of the pleasure comes from experiencing those revelations without knowing they’re coming.

What begins as an intimate portrait of Elizabeth Holmes in the final days before prison evolves into something considerably stranger and more ambitious.

The documentary starts examining itself.

The filmmakers become part of the mystery they’re trying to unravel. Questions about truth, performance, control, and representation grow increasingly complicated.

At times, I felt like I was watching a documentary.

At other times, a psychological thriller.

And occasionally, something approaching an absurdist comedy.

Somehow, all of it works.

What impressed me most is that the film never loses control of its own construction, even as the people inside it seem increasingly uncertain about where the story is heading.

I love movies that surprise me.

I love movies that challenge me.

And I especially love movies that make me reconsider my own assumptions.

YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING does all three.

One of the Best Movies of 2026. Period.

We’re getting close to the end of the year, and my annual top-ten list is already becoming a serious headache.

There are so many movies I love from 2026, and now YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING is elbowing its way into a room that was already pretty damn crowded.

Top ten?

Absolutely.

Top five?

I’m seriously considering it.

And I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if this movie became a major player throughout awards season.

Best Documentary Feature seems like an obvious conversation. But I’d also love to see Fielder and Oppenheim recognized for Best Director, and I think this belongs in the discussion for Best Picture.

David Bolen’s cinematography, Adam Locke-Norton’s editing, and Ari Balouzian’s extraordinary score also deserve attention.

The fact that this is a documentary shouldn’t somehow make its filmmaking achievements less impressive.

If anything, the precision and ingenuity required to create something this compelling from real people, real conversations, and an evolving series of events make the accomplishment even more remarkable.

And the title?

YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING.

By the time the credits roll, those four words take on an entirely different meaning.

Because no matter how many cameras we deploy, how many conversations we record, or how many hours we spend observing another human being, there will always be something beyond our understanding.

We’re left to interpret the evidence, question our assumptions, and decide what we believe.

Just like those Choose Your Own Adventure books I loved as a kid.

Except this time, there isn’t a page at the back that tells us whether we made the right decision.

And that’s precisely what makes the movie so extraordinary.

A+ in every single way.

One of the year’s best films, and a documentary I expect to be thinking about long after the awards have been handed out.

Check out the trailer below, or listen to me discuss this live today on the KVNU For The People Movie Show.