Why Elizabeth Holmes still captivates America more than ever
Filmmaker Nathan Fielder never planned to make a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes. He simply wanted to meet the woman who, for well over a decade, has been one of America’s most talked-about figures — first as a celebrated entrepreneur, then as a convicted criminal. That curiosity eventually became “You Can See Everything,” a film that premiered at the New York Film Festival two weeks ago and has quickly become one of the most discussed releases of the year.
Holmes rose to prominence in 2014 as the billionaire founder of Theranos, a health-tech startup that claimed its device could screen for diseases using only a drop of blood. Her carefully crafted image — a wide, unblinking gaze, dark red lipstick and a black turtleneck reminiscent of Steve Jobs — made her a magazine cover star. The story collapsed when investigators found the technology did not work as promised and often produced inaccurate results. She was convicted of defrauding investors and began serving a federal prison sentence in May 2023.
A story built for its moment
Her notoriety has tracked the cultural mood at every stage: an emblem of Silicon Valley optimism in the 2010s, and now a cautionary tale at a time when distrust of big tech runs high. The fact that her company’s failures touched people’s actual health gave the scandal extra weight. A 2019 piece in the Guardian described her saga as “a true crime saga with a dash of Fyre Fest-schadenfreude and the added bonus of an icy blonde with a mysteriously deep voice” — a line that helps explain why her story has already spawned a documentary, a hit podcast and a scripted series that won Amanda Seyfried an Emmy.
Fielder and co-director Lance Oppenheim gained rare access to Holmes, her partner Billy Evans, and their two young children in the final weeks before she reported to prison. That access appears tied to her effort to recast her public image, following a widely criticized New York Times profile that portrayed her as a reformed “devoted mother” who volunteers at a rape crisis centre. Even Fielder was taken aback that she agreed to participate. “I wouldn’t think I’d be the person you’d want,” he admitted at the premiere.
In the film, Holmes maintains she never lied and insists her device functioned properly, growing emotional as she describes feeling unfairly judged. Fielder’s visibly sceptical reactions — including his incredulous “You’ve never lied?” — have drawn laughter from audiences. Midway through, the film shifts register when another figure enters the narrative during Holmes’s imprisonment, offering a pointed outside perspective and suggesting two explanations for her behaviour: that she could be, in Fielder’s words, “the most manipulative person who ever lived,” or simply delusional.
Still defiant, still famous
Holmes is due to move to a halfway house next year and to be released in 2030. A pinned message on her active X account reads, “I am fighting to prove my innocence and come home to my babies and the love of my life.” Fielder, reflecting on the experience, said, “I am still struggling to this day to understand what I went through,” while Oppenheim described feeling “cognitive dissonance” throughout filming. The unresolved mystery of who Holmes really is, the film suggests, is precisely what keeps the public fascinated.
You Can See Everything opened in US cinemas on 16 October and arrives in UK cinemas on 20 November.
Source: BBC News