You Can See Everything

Nathan Fielder is the gift that keeps on giving. To watch his evolution from Comedy Central style one-off schemes in the beginning of Nathan For You, to its more and more convoluted and brilliant arching storylines, to the cringe-inducing, genre bending The Curse, to reach the peak of his form in the Rehearsal, a truly ingenious not just comedy, but work of art, to an out-of-nowhere absolute masterpiece in You Can See Everything. A documentary that pushes the very boundaries of the form, perhaps even breaking them, to the point where it is the first doc I’ve seen that is fully deserving of a Best Picture nomination, a feat that no documentary has ever pulled off. Jord, ever the contrarian, is mistaken in not giving this a 10/10, but E and I’s scores place this at a ZEJ 9.75/10, which makes it our highest rated movie since Hundreds of Beavers (2024) at 9.83/10 and only it and Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) at 10/10 stand above You Can See Everything since we kicked off ZEJ Reviews in 2022. E asked me, “are we really going to give this a 10? I have nothing to compare this to.” And I posited, “isn’t that what a 10 is? A movie unlike anything that’s ever come before it.” Lance Oppenheim’s hand in capturing what was filmed, and shaping the direction and edit cannot be overstated, and this movie reconfirms his brilliance that was shown in The Whale, and at least flashes of it in Primetime, but Nathan Fielder as the unintended protagonist of the movie, the one who would spar with the enigma that is Elizabeth Holmes and her equally puzzling husband Billy Evans, is such an amazing stroke of fate that it’s hard to put into words. If you’re not familiar with Nathan’s work, he often presents himself as this socially awkward person and then uses that as a tool to extract what is often comedic gold from the people he interacts with. He even goes so far as to imply he might be autistic in his latest HBO venture, and there could not have been a better person in the entire world than that to interact with Elizabeth Holmes, who is equally socially awkward, and at least how Elizabeth presents herself in the film, may be autistic or neurodivergent herself. I say how she presents herself, because as the film wrestles with, Elizabeth is a court-convicted liar, and perhaps even one of the best liars to have ever existed, and so it’s impossible to say whether the way she presents herself is real or not. But whether it’s real or not doesn’t matter. The socially awkward, presenting as autistic/neurodivergent, and master liar Elizabeth Holmes is the most inscrutable person Nathan Fielder has ever come across, and the film that is produced as a result of that meeting is one that I’ve thought about and talked about every day since I saw it. Nathan and Lance have gone to great lengths to preserve spoilers for would-be watchers, so I’ll avoid anything spoilery and end my review here, but please go watch and enjoy a true masterpiece.

-Z

It feels like everyone is saying the same kind of thing about this movie: I’m not quite sure what I just watched. And that was also my reaction walking out of the theater. The more time that passes, I do have to say I believe this is a masterpiece of whatever kind of film it is. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time, and I think it will change the future of documentary filmmaking for the better. There are so many layers to this, and the takeaways about truth and who we trust to tell the truth are really fascinating. Nathan Fielder is a unique kind of genius, and I hope he keeps doing weird, wacky projects like this. It has my vote for a Best Picture nom.

-E

Now, I am sure I will be the lowest on this. Expectations affected me a lot and they were so high I don’t know if any movie can meet the expectations I had for this. I love Nathan Fielder. He is extremely captivating and no one is doing it like him. My unpopular opinion is this is almost an extension of The Rehearsal and I know it is ground breaking in a lot of ways as a movie, but I feel like in some ways I have seen things similar to this from Nathan. Also, I feel like it came out without a strong conclusion, but that is a documentary for you. I have moved from 10 to 9 to 9.5 and I am finishing at 9.25. A movie everyone should see and needs to see.

-J

Z 10.0
E 10.0
J 9.25

ZEJ 9.75