You Can See Everything Makes Waves

What's happened

A new documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, You Can See Everything, has opened strongly, blending true-crime tension with media ethics. Viewers are exploring Holmes’s claims, her relationship with Billy Evans, and the documentary’s approach to truth as Fielder and Oppenheim shape two connected films.

What's behind the headline?

Analysis

• The film’s dual-structure challenges conventional documentary form, coaxing viewers to interrogate narrative honesty while watching a real-time power struggle between filmmaker and subject.
• It leverages high-profile figures (Holmes, Evans, Fielder, Seyfried) to drive audience engagement, but risks conflating art with fact as it traverses true-crime territory.
• The release timing taps into ongoing debates about transparency, accountability, and the role of media in reputational rehabilitation.
• Readers should consider how documentary framing can shape public understanding of complex fraud cases and what they should seek beyond the film.

How we got here

Elizabeth Holmes’s Theranos scandal has dominated tech fraud discourse for years. This documentary, created in secret over three years, embeds with Holmes and her family in 2023, then continues into 2025, exploring authenticity, narrative control, and the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

Our analysis

The Guardian, BBC Business, New York Times, Business Insider UK, The Guardian (multiple pieces) provide a mosaic of reception and box-office impact. Direct quotes and framing from each piece illustrate the differing emphases on authenticity, narrative control, and Oscar contention.

Go deeper

• Did you see the documentary and its later second-half shift?
• What questions does this raise about trust in media narratives?
• Which sources do you trust most for a fair take on Holmes and Theranos?

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