Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's documentary You Can See Everything opened in U.S. theaters on Friday. A24 is releasing it, and it runs almost three hours. It follows Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, in the 34 days before she reported to federal prison in May 2023. Holmes and Evans invited the filmmakers in. It has a Metascore of 98 out of 100, and it made about $1.75 million in Thursday previews. A jury convicted Holmes of defrauding investors in 2022. A judge cut her sentence to 10 years and 3 months this March. She's asked President Trump to commute it, and that request is still pending. Critics mostly agree the film is good. They disagree about how kindly it treats her.

The Sympathy Is the Point, and It's the Film of the Year (Chris Willman, Peter Suderman, Nick Schager, Alison Willmore)

These critics say the film's empathy for Holmes is what makes it great, and one says it still doesn't excuse her.

Its kindness toward her makes it great. Variety columnist Chris Willman called it "a movie with some sympathy for the devil." He says its slow look into Holmes's soul "feels like a balm, inconclusive or not." "We could do worse than to have the possibility of sympathy thrown in amid those hours of head-scratching assessment," he wrote.

Empathy isn't the same as excusing her. Reason features editor Peter Suderman starts with what everyone already believes. "We all know Elizabeth Holmes is a villain," he wrote. He says the film shows "genuine and deeply felt empathy" for someone the culture and the courts have already judged. He also says, "The documentarians do not absolve her of her villainy."

Critics are calling it an all-time great. Daily Beast critic Nick Schager says it "stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the form's all-time greats." Vulture ran Alison Willmore's review under the headline "Nathan Fielder Has Made the Movie of the Year."

But Fielder Got Too Close, and the Hype Is Too Big (Dom Sinacola, Stephanie Zacharek)

One critic says Fielder lost the distance a filmmaker needs. Another says the film is clever but no revolution.

He seems to care about her more than he should. The Stranger's review ran under the headline "'You Can See Everything' Gets Too Close." Critic Dom Sinacola wrote that even when Fielder "can't say he truly believes her, he appears to feel something for her beyond what he should." He says Fielder "may be too ready to sacrifice the distance he needs." Sinacola still calls it "one of the most intimate films of the year."

Critics are overpraising the film. TIME film critic Stephanie Zacharek answered the claims that it will change documentaries forever with "Not so fast." She says the filmmakers "haven't revolutionized the documentary film." She wrote that the movie "feels more like a product they've brought to market than an example of the documentarian's art."

And the Film Is Manipulating You (Linda Holmes, Callie Ahlgrim, Polina Pompliano)

These critics say the film works on viewers' feelings, and one warns that pity is exactly what a convicted fraudster would want.

The mystery feels rigged when it skips the facts. NPR critic Linda Holmes says some questions are "artificially rendered unanswerable" because the film sets aside evidence that's out there. She says that makes it feel "a bit more hollow and more manipulative." She asks what, if anything, Elizabeth Holmes signed with the filmmakers. She warns the film's version of Elizabeth Holmes could "do a disservice to people who treat it as real."

Feeling sorry for her may be the trap. Business Insider's Callie Ahlgrim wrote that she wanted to believe Holmes. "What if pity was exactly the reaction that Holmes — a talented, convicted fraudster — was angling for?" she asked. Ahlgrim cites Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz. In HBO's 2019 documentary The Inventor, he said of Holmes's vision, "You want it to be true so badly."

The filmmakers are steering you on purpose. Polina Pompliano, who writes The Profile newsletter, calls the film "a masterpiece in storytelling." She also says the filmmakers "were deceiving us — the viewers — in real time." She says they did it "through camera angles, close-ups, editing, and the order in which information was revealed." "An entire theater full of grown adults was falling for it," she wrote.

Where This Lands

Willman and Suderman say the film's sympathy for Holmes is what makes it great, and Suderman says it never absolves her. Sinacola says Fielder got too attached to his subject. Zacharek says the film is a clever product, not the revolution critics are describing. Ahlgrim worries the film pulls viewers toward pity, and Linda Holmes says it sets aside evidence that's out there. Pompliano admires the film and says it manipulates viewers on purpose. Fielder has said that when he first met Elizabeth Holmes, she seemed "so genuine at times," but he kept reminding himself, "Okay, I know she's a liar." The Justice Department lists her commutation request as pending, and no action on it has been reported.

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