The strangest movie event of the year is officially here. You Can See Everything, the secret documentary that Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim filmed inside Elizabeth Holmes’ life as she prepared to report to federal prison, opens in US theaters today, October 16, and critics are calling it one of the best documentaries ever made. Here is the full story behind the film, the complete timeline of how Theranos’ founder went from a $9 billion valuation to a prison bunk, and everything you need to know before you buy a ticket.
What is You Can See Everything?
You Can See Everything is a 174-minute documentary from A24, co-directed by Nathan Fielder (Nathan for You, The Rehearsal) and Lance Oppenheim (Some Kind of Heaven). The official logline sets the stage: “Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.”
The crew moved into the home Holmes shared with her partner Billy Evans and their children in April 2023 and kept filming for three years, covering her final days of freedom and her first weeks behind bars. Fielder originally planned to stay behind the camera, but his on-camera interactions with Holmes and Evans were so strange that the filmmakers decided they had to be part of the movie. In one teaser moment, Holmes stares at Fielder and insists: “Of course I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you?”
One more twist worth knowing: Amanda Seyfried, who won an Emmy playing Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout, appears in the documentary both as herself and in character as Holmes, blurring the line between the real woman and her most famous portrayal.
The full Elizabeth Holmes timeline: from $9 billion to federal prison
If you only half-remember the Theranos saga, here is the complete arc the film builds on:
2003: Holmes, 19, drops out of Stanford and founds Theranos, promising revolutionary blood tests that need only a fingerprick.
2014-2015: Theranos hits a $9 billion valuation after raising more than $400 million. Forbes names Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire in America.
2015-2016: Reporting led by the Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou exposes that the technology does not work as claimed. Forbes revises Holmes’ net worth to zero.
June 2018: A federal grand jury indicts Holmes and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani on fraud charges. Theranos shuts down later that year.
January 2022: A jury convicts Holmes of defrauding investors (and acquits her of defrauding patients).
November 2022: Holmes is sentenced to 11 and a quarter years in federal prison and ordered, with Balwani, to pay $452 million in restitution.
April 2023: Holmes invites Fielder and Oppenheim’s crew to live in her home for the 34 days before her sentence begins.
May 30, 2023: Holmes reports to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas.
September 6, 2026:You Can See Everything premieres as a secret screening at Telluride, where attendees had to surrender their phones. A24 announces the October 16 release date the same day.
October 16, 2026: The film opens in roughly 800 US theaters.
November 20, 2026: UK and Ireland release.
How this documentary even happened
The backstory is almost as odd as the film. Holmes herself had reached out to A24 about making a documentary before the directors signed on, reportedly convinced that if she could just tell her side, everyone would believe her. A24 gave Fielder and Oppenheim something studios almost never give: no deadline and no obligation to deliver a finished movie at all.
Fielder has been unusually candid about the experience. He told Variety of Holmes: “She seems so genuine… I know she’s a liar.” And he said the crew knew they had a film when the people living in the house could not agree on what was real: “We’re all smart and we’re really working at the top of our intelligence. Why can’t we make sense of what’s happening in this house?” The filmmakers’ relationship with Evans broke down by the end of production, with Fielder saying Evans tried to exert a level of control over the project that made them uncomfortable.
What critics are saying
The reviews are not just good, they are historic. The film sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from 63 reviews with a 9.5 average, and 99 out of 100 on Metacritic, labeled “universal acclaim.” A sample:
Variety called it “a one-of-a-kind reality-TV-as-hangout-movie psychodrama circus” that “gets its hooks in you,” and said its final movement left Telluride’s most seasoned attendees “shell-shocked.”
The New Yorker called it “more than fascinating and ingenious; it’s strangely, poetically, poignantly beautiful.”
The Guardian described it as “more shocking, twistier, thornier and revealing than billed… a thrilling once-in-a-lifetime collision of director and subject.”
The Daily Beast went furthest: “not just the film of the year – it’s a documentary that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the form’s all-time greats.”
Awards season has noticed too: the film just landed five Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations, including Best Documentary Feature, ahead of the November 8 ceremony.
What this means for you as a viewer
Where to watch: The film is in US theaters now (about 800 locations), so check your local listings. There is no streaming date yet; A24 has not announced one. UK and Ireland viewers get it November 20.
Set aside an evening: At 174 minutes, this is a nearly three-hour film, closer to an event than a casual weeknight rental. Plan accordingly.
Who it is for: If you read Bad Blood, watched The Dropout or the ABC podcast, this is the missing chapter: Holmes in her own words, on camera, trying to control the story one more time. If you loved Nathan for You or The Rehearsal, critics say Fielder’s deadpan has never been used to stranger effect. And if you know nothing about Theranos, the timeline above is all the homework you need.
Box office context: The film is projected to open to $7-8 million this weekend, a strong start for a documentary, alongside wide releases Street Fighter, Whalefall, and Sense and Sensibility – if you are making a full movie weekend of it, our Sense and Sensibility guide has reviews and ticket details.
Where Holmes is now: She remains at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas. The Bureau of Prisons currently projects her release in 2032, roughly two years early under good-conduct guidelines – which means the story this film tells is still being written.
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