# You Can See Everything \[Nathan Fielder film\] {Warning: Open Spoilers} **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 16, 2026, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877 "2026-10-16T03:50:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/1 "2026-10-16T03:50:40Z")
Incredible. If you enjoyed The Rehearsal, you will love it. If you don’t know anything about Nathan Fielder or The Dropout it may be worth reading a bit on both before seeing it. It won’t spoil anything. The whole movie is a ride. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/2 "2026-10-16T03:59:54Z")
I could barely watch the trailer it made me so viscerally uncomfortable. Do you expect I would feel similarly uncomfortable for the whole film? ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/3 "2026-10-16T04:02:05Z")
Definitely not, and the scene from the trailer isn’t as cringe in the actual film. You will cringe at times though, sometimes badly. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/4 "2026-10-16T04:15:34Z")
The demand for this has been crazy here, they kept having to add more screenings because they all sold out. Saw it tonight with a packed house. I really did _not_ know what to expect with this! Begins as a documentary on Elizabeth Holmes and then… well I don’t want to say any more but it was insane and I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/5 "2026-10-16T12:02:32Z")
After his complete and utter bullshit about aviation in his TV show, I’m uninterested in anything he has to say. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/6 "2026-10-18T22:56:51Z")
So to prepare ourselves last night we watched the first episode of the Rehearsal and I was absolutely floored. That was layers deep. Also my husband said “This is the most autistic thing I’ve ever seen.” No shit. We saw the film today and we are just mind blown. Are we doing spoilers here? Let me just say I thought it was going to be a sociopath vs. a seasoned bullshitter and it did not follow the script. I truly think it’s the best documentary I have ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/7 "2026-10-19T00:17:03Z")
Being purposefully vague here but would it be possible for someone to win a Best Supporting Actor/Actress award for a documentary? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/8 "2026-10-19T00:28:40Z")
Would someone please give some details? In a spoiler box, if necessary. Or at least more details about your reactions. So far this thread is pretty devoid of content. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/9 "2026-10-19T01:39:45Z")
It really must be seen without knowing the spoilers. I don’t know why people want things like this spoiled for them if you have any interest in the film at all. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/10 "2026-10-19T01:43:29Z")
You’re a big help. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/11 "2026-10-19T01:45:22Z")
Gladly. I’m dying to talk about this. (I blurred major spoilers but some may consider more of this spoilery… you are so warned.) I don’t know how familiar you are with Fielder’s work – I’ve only dabbled – but this is an (almost certainly) autistic man who has kind of made a living putting people on. He’s socially awkward but seems to play it up for laughs or to provoke a reaction - often you’re left questioning how much of what you saw was real. The one episode I saw of the Rehearsal impressed me as several layers deep from an artistic standpoint, and for me very relatable. So I think it’s important to understand who Fielder is going into this film. He is a guy who intentionally fucks with the audience. The creepy trailer for _You Can See Everything_ implies some kind of cat-and-mouse between Fielder and Holmes. You’ve got the guy who’s always putting people on vs. the liar and manipulative sociopath. And that’s what you go in expecting. And I suspect the filmmakers went into it too. Holmes and her fiance Billy Evans decide they are going to invite Fielder into their home to show the world who they really are, in the lead up to Holmes’ imprisonment, which is I believe 34 days from the start of the film. It appears that Holmes hasn’t a goddamned clue who Fielder is. The whole thing gets weird very fast because Elizabeth Holmes, when pressed, can offer no counter-narrative to what occurred. She insists she’s innocent but she can’t provide an explanation for what actually happened. Billy Evans is trying to push a certain narrative onto Fielder, but Fielder isn’t biting, and Holmes has nothing. Trying not to spoil here, but… the film begins to question some foundational assumptions about who Holmes is and what’s actually going on, and then once Holmes is actually in prison, the focus of it shifts considerably when you learn that Billy Evans is a delusional, narcissistic, controlling, potentially dangerous asshole It is one wild fucking ride, one in which the viewer may be surprised by their own emotional reactions as the story unfolds. True to form, there’s nothing this film doesn’t call into question. It calls into question whether Holmes is in fact lying and manipulative or something very different (but equally broken), whether or not she is aware of her fiance’s actions, whether Fielder has himself lost objectivity, whether objectivity is even possible in anything, whether truth is relative, whether love is real even when it’s a delusion, and how gender politics plays into all of this, including (which is not mentioned in the film) Holmes’ own legal defense that she was abused by her partner in crime. It confronts the ethical implications of Fielder’s creative choices and plays with ideas of ethics in journalism and whether violating those ethics is justified in pursuit of the truth. One supporting character experiences the cognitive dissonance between depicting someone as a character and then grappling with the reality of that person’s life. There are very few questions this documentary doesn’t raise, frankly. I stand by my assertion that it’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. I can tell you what I think is going on but it almost doesn’t matter. The inherent subjectivity is the point. I was reading an article that mentioned the title of _You Can See Everything_ could mean one of five different things, but I thought of a potential sixth meaning. One of the central “aha” moments of the film is when Fielder debates with Holmes about her understanding of the word _can._ He’s saying, look, you knew when you used the word _can_ people would interpret it a certain way that is not the way that you meant. Holmes is baffled by his attempt to clarify. Well, “can” is doing is a lot of heavy lifting in the title, too, I wager. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/12 "2026-10-19T01:57:06Z")
As an aside, a lot of Fielder’s shows have funny moments. As I walked out of this amazing film, I legit heard someone complain that it wasn’t that funny. Talk about missing the point. (There are some very funny moments, but no, it’s not a comedy. It’s a three-hour mindfuck.) ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/13 "2026-10-19T02:03:52Z")
I am actually not that surprised to see Holmes struggling with the concept of deception. The big tech culture is full of this, I work with many similar people. The thing about tech is, everything is negotiable. It’s hard draw a line and say this is real and this isn’t, this is possible and this isn’t, or we do this and we don’t do that. Everything is contingent. Everything yields to greater pressure or greater investment. Over time it erodes your ability to make actual reality-based or value-based judgements and you end up being just a message-router for larger narratives of unknown origin. For this reason, in my current role I find myself needing to integrity-check myself more than I ever have before, while realizing that it’s only for my own sanity and self-respect, that this behavior of being grounded in reality is actually a liability in the workplace. Big tech is a culture of deception and delusion, utterly amoral (at best). Some people can’t adjust at all, people who are too hardcoded toward directness and honesty and truthfulness. These people get immediately instrumentalized by others and burn out fairly quickly once they realize nothing is real. And then there are natural-born chameleon types who fall into it naturally. I think Holmes is one of those, but I’ll need to see the film before I develop any more opinions. I can tell you this much: in big tech, she’s not unique at all, except in the fact that she happened to get caught. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/14 "2026-10-19T02:06:52Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Big tech is a culture of deception and delusion, utterly amoral (at best). Ooohhh, I had never even considered that angle. Good call. There’s a scene I will be very interested in discussing with you after you see it. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/15 "2026-10-19T02:21:37Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > These people get immediately instrumentalized by others and burn out fairly quickly once they realize nothing is real. This is kind of something I found relatable in the film, actually. I know people lie and manipulate each other, but it’s anathema to me. I’m like the kind of person who is vulnerable to scammers. I once tried to sell a laptop on Ebay and shipped it overseas despite like every red flag in the book. The post office had to call me and tell me I was being scammed before they would ship it. My husband has never let me forget it (not in the sense of mocking me but in the sense of trying to protect me from myself.) I wouldn’t do very well in the tech world. And that probably plays into how I read this film. And also how I perceive Fielder’s work in general. I keep coming back to certain parts I want to believe were real. I feel like this film is going to result in so many different takes because it’s going to draw out the idiosyncratic nature of people who see it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/16 "2026-10-19T11:22:21Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Would someone please give some details? In a spoiler box, if necessary. There’s a fairly detailed synopsis on Wikipedia. > **[You Can See Everything](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_See_Everything)** > > You Can See Everything is a 2026 American documentary film directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. It follows Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the defunct health technology company Theranos, and her partner Billy Evans, who invite a film crew to document them beginning in the weeks before Holmes began serving a United States federal prison sentence for defrauding investors. The film premiered as a secret screening at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival on September 6, 2026, and was theatric... ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/17 "2026-10-19T15:55:17Z")
Here’s what I think is happening. I don’t believe Holmes is a sociopath but I think there is evidence presented that her brain is broken in some other, weirder way. Not just in her inability to perceive why _Who’s on First_ is funny (and arguably her failure to understand deception of any kind) but in her willingness to subsume her agency and identity completely in a man. I’ve got some family members like this, it’s like who they are disappears when there’s a man involved. I do believe Fielder got emotionally involved and I think his creative team intentionally tried to get the viewer emotionally involved too. And I did. The moment that Evans took away the bowl of eggs from Holmes, I thought, _oh shit, get that girl out of there._ I can see a lot of contexts where that could have been harmless but the way he did it, his timing and attitude and her response threw up huge red flags. Fielder caught it too. He seems to be an incredibly perceptive man. Yet I think Evans lacks a capacity for judgment too; he jumped into a relationship with Holmes having every reason not to trust her, and seems not to have considered the implications. In some sense he seems every bit as naive. As an aside, I thought it was bizarre her father outed her without preamble as a rape victim. Not his story to tell. This story is full of men trying to speak for her, including Fielder, and I don’t think that’s an accident either. One thing I hadn’t considered until I read an article about it is that this film is one of the few documentaries where the documentarian actively participates in what’s unfolding. Apparently it started with Fielder just observing but the couple seemed to be inviting him to participate. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/18 "2026-10-19T16:06:05Z")
It should not be forgotten that Elizabeth Holmes is a pathological liar. There is no world in which someone smart enough to get into Stanford is too dumb to unpack why she’s going to jail. IMHO (and as you say, the film invites individual interpretations), The scenes Fielder and Oppenheimer chose to include from their time in the beach house are telling. 1) Elizabeth expresses an inability to understand why “This machine can run all tests” is confusing when she knew that the machine could only run 12 tests. Fielder expresses astonishment that she’s sticking with this obvious, obvious lie. 2) Elizabeth says she’s never lied before in her life. Fielder is stunned at the stupidity of this lie. 3) Elizabeth pretends not to understand _Who’s on First_. This demonstrates to the viewer how far she’s willing to go to fabricate a narrative (it’s my autism, see?). Billy Evans is an asshole, yes, but Elizabeth Holmes is a liar and a grifter. Fielder’s affection, which may or may not be performative, should be read (again, IMHO) as affection to her dedication and her ability to make people like her _even when_ they know that she’s a liar. One of the more brilliant aspects of bringing Amanda Seyfried into the film is that we get to see Amanda go through all the stages of doubt in real-time. If you watch the documentary on HBO from 2019, you learn that the Edison machine was garbage – like obvious, hot garbage. They were only able to keep up the grift for 4 years and that was because of incredibly strict privacy and security protocols that kept most of the 800 employees from knowing how little the machine was actually capable of. They weren’t “close” to a solution because the problem they set out to solve had no realistic path to success. And Elizabeth Holmes knew this. This is her power, that we can know that she’s a real piece of shit on the one hand, and sorta doubt our own perceptions of her at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/19 "2026-10-19T16:18:36Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > There is no world in which someone smart enough to get into Stanford is too dumb to unpack why she’s going to jail. Can’t you use the same argument to say she’s smart enough she could have avoided jail in the first place? If she’s so smart, why didn’t she advance an alternative narrative? She must have known the optics would not be good. I need to familiarize myself with the actual facts of the case, because they are in short supply in this film. I will watch the other documentary. Based on my own experience parenting a child who is brilliant academically but fails to understand basic social concepts, I think my interpretation is possible. Although, I don’t believe she is autistic. I guess you’re saying she was faking not understanding the comedy sketch? But I don’t think she was. I’m curious what others think. Real reaction or no? ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877/20 "2026-10-19T16:25:27Z")
Her alternative narrative was that it was all her ex-boyfriend (COO/President and all around dickbag Sonny Balwani) and that she was just an innocent patsy. Sonny was convicted on the same fraud counts, but he was also convicted on the patient endangerment charges which Holmes was acquitted on. She did a pretty good job of insulating herself from the criminal activity, but not good enough (and it’s probably true that a man in her position might have fared better in court). But yes, her entire public persona has always been a construct and I think the neurodivergent angle (she just thinks differently!) is total BS. But also, she’s very good at it, and I don’t fault anyone for believing it – I even found myself doubting my gut during that scene. And yeah, I’d also be interested in seeing what others thought. It’s what makes the film so amazing! What’s even real!? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-see-everything-nathan-fielder-film-warning-open-spoilers/1033877.md?page=2)