Attention All Autists!! And anyone perturbed by the recent trailer drop sweeping newsfeeds. We have a brand new surprise A24 documentary directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim (directed Primetime and The Whale). And apparently its going to be centered on the disgraced and failed Theranos founder - Elizabeth Holmes, as it leads up to her being imprisoned for her crimes. I really think this project is bringing together two of modern pop culture's truly most fascinating manipulators of personal narrative. I'm super excited for this movie. So let's get into the lore.
Now to get you, or an unfamiliar viewer, to appreciate ecactly why this project is sending literal shockwaves through the film world, firstly you'll have to catch up on all the lore behind Elizabeth Holmes before diving into Nathan Fielder's antics over the last two decades. Which will be much easier to digest than the latter. This woman was once a celebrated Silicon Valley self-made female Billionaire. She had claimed her startup, Theranos, could run hundreds of medical tests on just a single drop of blood 🩸 But unfortunately here in reality, and behind the closed doors of her facilitiy... this new technology was a complete sham that actually endangered real patients and ultimately led to her conviction for fraud from investors.
Now here's what to watch if you need a refresher on the Theranos saga, there are two crucial pieces of media that tell a lot of this story:
- The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley - This is HBO's documentary (directed by Alex Gibney), that breaks down how Holmes had mesmerized her unsuspecting investors and board members through absolutely relentless, unbreaking eye contact, a deeply unsettling baritone voice, and carefully staged public appearances. She was weird af dude, trust me.
- The Dropout - This is the Emmy-winning drama series starring Amanda Seyfried, that recreates Holmes’s rise to power and fall from Silicon Valley straight into a jail cell. But this series also offers an intimate look at how she crafted her notoriously iconic turtleneck-wearing mogul mogging persona.
Now, the good stuff for my neurodivergent readers... Enter Nathan Fielder. He's known for his signature blend of cringe-inducing awkward realism, hyper-controlled whacked out social experiments, and that insightful yet unsparing editing. Mr. Fielder specializes in dismantling people's carefully constructed facades.
If you aren't already a fan of this Wizard of Loneliness, here's what to watch to get caught up on Mr. Fielder's unique comedic and documentary style filmmaking:
- Nathan for You - Nathan plays as himself, sort of, acting as an offbeat business consultant who graduated from business school with really good grades. He offers up the most absurd marketing strategies to his unfortunate victims: struggling small businesses. The show’s genius lies in its editing by somehow always capturing someone's genuinely delusional perspective as participants try to save face on camera.
- The Rehearsal - This is where he takes his obsession with control to extreme lengths. He constructs full-scale sets inside of warehouses - like an working actual bar in Season 1 - to help out ordinary people rehearse life's trickiest moments. (Just sever me instead). This show is one of my favorite pieces of television and it is constantly blurring the boundary between reality and performance art. It was also really hilarious when he blasted Paramount for being Nazis.
In You Can See Everything, between flying planes over the Mojave, Nathan Fielder somehow shifted his special interest from soaring the skies to gaining rare access to Elizabeth Holmes. Given Mr. Fielder’s track record of editing in ways that frighteningly expose how subjects really behave when they think they're the ones in control, I think this documentary is promising us an unforgettable clash between a master of corporate deception and the ultimate grandmaster of documentary cringe.
"Its like when an unstoppable force, meets an immovable object."
Watch the You Can See Everything Official Teaser on YouTube.
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This official teaser trailer offers the first footage of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's secret documentary project featuring Elizabeth Holmes.
