Who Elizabeth Holmes is and why she went to jail as Nathan Fielder doc sets all time Letterboxd record
While it’s yet to have its UK release, Nathan Fielder’s documentary on Elizabeth Holmes has already set an all-time Letterboxd record.
Directed with Lance Oppenheim, You Can See Everything has raked in a mega $15 million (£11.25 million) on its box office debut.
Having been produced in secret over three years, the doc was released with a limited run at 855 screens across the US and Canada on Friday (16 October) and is now the highest-rated film on Letterboxd.
Based on over 180,000 ratings, it currently has a weighted average of 4.7 stars.
Advert
Fielder places himself directly inside the action, with You Can See Everything following Holmes before starting her 11 year and three-month prison sentence.
The founder of health technology company Theranos, Holmes was found guilty on four counts of fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Along with her ex-boyfriend and COO Ramesh Balwani, they were ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of her fraud.
Who is Elizabeth Holmes and what led to her going to prison for fraud?
Holmes rose to fame after Forbes announced her as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire in 2014. She was just 30 at the time and her stake in Theranos alone was worth $4.5 billion.
Theranos promised that they would revolutionise the health space by allowing blood testing to be done using a far smaller amount, but also allowing blood to be drawn and tested upon without a needle.
She promised to ‘democratise healthcare’ and the company was worth $9 billion at its peak, but it all came crashing down shortly after.
A Wall Street Journal report in 2015 revealed major issues with their blood testing kits after a tip-off from an anonymous industry insider, leading several whistleblowers to come forward.
The report alleged that Holmes and the company had been misleading both investors and patients on the testing accuracy and methodology of their kits, eventually leading to the company’s labs being shut down and the SEC suing Holmes and Balwani.
A podcast called The Dropout was later turned into a TV show with Amanda Seyfried playing Holmes, leading to her winning an Emmy for her portrayal. Now though, A24’s documentary covers her going to prison in 2023 and is getting rave reviews.
Nathan Fielder lived with Elizabeth Holmes and her family in the lead up to her going to prison
The trailer for the documentary previously went viral, with Holmes assuring Fielder she would not lie to him and that she is ‘engaging with him as a human being’.
You Can See Everything released on Friday for a limited run in the US and Canada and is set to land in UK cinemas on 20 November, if you can bear to avoid spoilers until then.
Indiewire gave the doc an A rating, stating that it ‘keeps us on the edge of our seats, glued to the screen’, whilst Deadline called it ‘one hell of a ride’.
The documentary follows the last 30 or so days before she goes to prison, with Fielder living with Holmes, her controversial husband Billy Evans, and her two young children.
Deadline added in their review that it was ‘unlike any [documentary] I have ever seen in terms of pure access… these people appear to hide nothing.’
One post on X said: “I love when the movie of the year just appears out of nowhere like this,” whilst Ben Stiller simply quoted the trailer post and said: “Yes.”
You Can See Everything releases in the UK on 20 November.
Topics: True Crime, TV and Film, Film, Documentaries
Michael Slavin