OUT FOR BLOOD

The Elizabeth Holmes Doc Is the Most WTF Movie of the Year

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.

This week:

It Really Is That Good

It’s so rare for something to live up to the hype.

Trust me. I’m a sleepy boy, and a busy boy. I would not recommend a three-hour documentary unless it was worth it.

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In being as good as you’ve heard—and, if possible, even more bonkers—You Can See Everything is poised to make history. Not only will it go down as the coolest movie of the year (get ready for months of film bros talking your ear off about it), it will get accolades not typically afforded non-fiction films: Mark my words, this will be the first documentary nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. And when its box office takes off and word-of-mouth reaches a din of a frenzy, don’t be surprised if Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim enter the Best Director conversation, too.

The best thing you can do going into You Can See Everything is know as little as possible. So I’m certainly not going to write anything that would interfere with the thrilling experience of seeing the film, which I would describe as your mind riding a carousel outfitted with rocket boosters while you wail “what the f---...” into the centrifugal void. I just want to try to convince you to see it.

Directed by Fielder, who’s made a name for himself on cheeky provocation, and Oppenheim, who is hot off the release of his Chris Hansen film Primetime, You Can See Everything is, most simply, a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes.

Holmes is the founder of Theranos, becoming the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire amid excitement over what she promised was revolutionary blood-testing technology. She was later convicted of fraud and is currently in prison—at a facility that incredibly also housed Real Housewife Jen Shah and Jeffrey Epstein crony Ghislaine Maxwell.

Thirty-four days before her sentence began, she and her partner Billy Evans, with whom she has two children, rather inexplicably allowed Fielder, Oppenheim, and their film crew into their home. Even after Holmes went to jail, they kept documenting Evans and, through him, Holmes’s experience.

The obvious question we all have—why on God’s green earth would they agree to do this???—is very much baked into the film.

At every juncture—when they invite Fielder to actually move into their home with them, when Holmes maintains time and again that she didn’t lie to anyone, when Evans has the cameras film him full-frontal nude—Fielder and Oppenheim circle back to that question. In some ways, answering it is the entire mission of the three-hour film, and its inability to really do so is one of the most thrilling parts of the ride. I’m not sure I’ve ever watched a full-length feature like this and spent the whole time in a state of bafflement. It’s an unusual feeling. It’s kind of fun.

I will say the film requires you to have substantial knowledge of the entire Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes scandal, to have seen the Hulu series about her, The Dropout, and to have passionate, perhaps even extreme feelings about both. Holmes’ lore—her intensity, unnatural-sounding deep voice, and huge, unblinking eyes—is essential, as the film interrogates how to get to know the “real” her, if that’s even possible.

Fielder is as important a character in the film as she is, or, in the back half, when he all but takes over, Evans is. No one is better suited for the endless staring contests than Fielder, slowly grinning as awkward tension becomes almost unbearable, licking his bottom teeth in a way that manages to be at once nerdy, sinister, and sexy. As the film goes on, you can tell that he’s not quite sure what’s being revealed or how to process it, but he’s having a great time. You come to admire both his patience and his smugness, and marvel at his dedication to maintaining a terrible, overgrown haircut over years of filming.

There’s a big reveal, of course, which you’ve probably heard, and I won’t spoil. When that reveal happens, it’s like playing Mario Kart, getting a star, driving over the turbo boost, and then propelling into the abyss on Rainbow Road. I’m trying to articulate the most exhilarating experience a person can have, and that’s my go-to.

What makes You Can See Everything so unique, and why it’s expected to make history at award shows, is the fascinating way that Fielder upends the documentary form. Not just centering a film on a woman who is notorious for allegedly misleading people and her romantic partner with questionable motives, he casts himself as a character. The more intimate his relationships with the people in the film become, the more he emerges as an unreliable narrator as well.

The film forces you to rethink the idea of storytelling and what truth even is, no matter if it’s happening in plain sight, captured by cameras for all of us to see. And you really need to see it. Go see You Can See Everything before someone ruins it for you.

The Year’s Most Beautiful Film

I hate long movies. Whenever I learn that a film is over two hours, I immediately rule that there’s absolutely no reason for it to go on that long—and then, once I see it, I’m usually right. We are in a crisis of movies that should have cut 30-40 minutes.

So I can’t believe that, in addition to recommending a three-hour documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, I am imploring you to see a nearly three-hour foreign-language film this weekend as well. Who am I? I haven’t had time to consider that question because I’ve spent every waking moment at a movie theater.

La Bola Negra, maybe I’m closed-minded, seems like a hard sell.

The Spanish film is a sweeping epic spanning three timelines. It’s about forbidden love, the scars inflicted by life under authoritarian rule, and how, even as generations pass, we’re still obligated to tend to wounds that never fully close. It’s as romantic as it is brutal, and as relatable as it is ambitious. While the film is sexy in ways I wasn’t expecting, it’s not exactly a sexy sell.

So the sell to audiences instead becomes this: Just listen to me. I am telling you this film is stunning and will move you in ways you weren’t prepared for. It’s been weeks since I first saw it, and I’m still wading through my feelings. Listen to the critics, who are predicting that it could actually win Best Picture at the Oscars over The Odyssey, that’s how good it is. Listen Obsessed’s Nick Schager, who had these gorgeous things to say about it:

“Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s film feels both old and new. Sweeping and poignant even when its schematic seams show, it’s a moving saga about the knotty ties that bind us to our pasts—and, with any luck, are slowly unknotted—which suffuses its conventions with heft and heart...

…A swirl of art, amour, repression, and conflict set in the midst (and aftermath) of authoritarianism and war, La Bola Negra is both a universal tale of loss and endurance and an explicitly queer fable about identity, agency, survival and progress.”

I need people to see La Bola Negra in theaters, both because it’s so spectacular on a big screen and because I know that once it’s on Netflix, they won’t have the attention span to stick with it before TikTok scrolling beckons. And I get it. I’m a person who thinks Mamma Mia 2 and Paddington 2 are greater artistic achievements than Dune 2. I’m not popular amongst cinephiles.

But I hate the bifurcation. You can like populist fare and be an enthusiast of silliness, and still invest in more so-called pedigreed projects like La Bola Negra. So trust me, and see it. You won’t regret it.

The ‘AAAHHH!!!’ That I Aaahhh’d at This News…

It is my opinion that every beloved series should get its own And Just Like That…

Let us revisit our favorite characters from TV shows that were perfect in their original iteration, and see all the ways they can be bastardized and ruined. The mess is fun. And when there are flashes of brilliance in these “where are they now” continuations, the years-long emotional history we have with the characters makes the wins that much more powerful.

That’s just one of the many reasons I’m so excited for Lena Dunham and the main cast of Girls to come back in a limited series.

As a Dunham apologist and Girls defender when it originally aired, it’s been rewarding to be on the right side of history as the show gains more and more respect and popularity, reconsidered now that it’s freed from the echo chamber of discourse that surrounded it.

Now the question of the title: Should it be renamed Ladies, referencing Shoshanna’s iconic line from the second episode of the series? Or how about it references the Sex and the City sequel that preceded it: And Just Like That…We’re the Ladies.

The Real Series MVP

I spent the long weekend catching up on Netflix’s East of Eden series. I never read John Steinbeck’s book or watched Elia Kazan’s movie, so I was unaware how utterly f---ed up the story is. Have you all known that all along and weren’t telling anyone?

In any case, I had two major thoughts: We need to stop with lighting so dark that you spend entire scenes staring at what amounts to an entirely black TV screen, and, of all the standout performances, it was Hoon Lee playing the family’s servant-turned-confidant who really bowled me over. I hope he gets the attention he deserves once awards season rolls around.

I Can’t Stop Laughing

I hope the Kelly Clarkson/$15,000 automaton bird saga never goes away. It has given me so much delight.

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

I interviewed Kathy Griffin about how being targeted by Trump ruined her life, and how she bounced back. Watch here.

I interviewed TV’s most prophetic TV creator, and he had quite the message: “We’re screwed.” Read more.

Here’s a great piece about the Elizabeth Holmes to read…but only after you’ve seen it! Read more.

What to Watch This Week:

You Can See Everything: Hurry, before you’re spoiled. (Now in theaters)

La Bola Negra: Just truly a gorgeous film. (Now in theaters)

The Diplomat: In Keri Russell, we trust. (Now on Netflix)

The Real Housewives of Potomac: Back, and as great as ever. (Now on Bravo and Peacock)

What to Skip This Week:

Whalefall: At least you can’t say a movie set inside a whale is something we’ve seen before. (Now in theaters)

Crystal Lake: Do we really need another Friday the 13th spinoff? (Now on Netflix)

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Kevin FallonEditor-at-Large, Obsessed

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