'You Can See Everything' captures weirdness of 'post-truth era'

The three-hour-long film plunges audiences into the surreal world of Elizabeth Holmes, one-time doyenne of Silicon Valley imprisoned for fraudulent claims about her supposedly revolutionary blood-testing tech.

A smash box office success, the film –which begins one month before Holmes heads to prison – has spawned ubiquitous internet memes, lookalike contests and commentary from influencers enamored by the darkly comic, deadpan style of her mock inquisitor, Nathan Fielder.

Holmes's legend as a rare woman tech founder has proven fertile ground for numerous media postmortems of her sham business's implosion.

"I've followed this story a lot over the years," said filmgoer Alexandra Lesnik, 29, at a packed afternoon screening in Brooklyn, the first time she had watched a documentary in a theater.

"This was a new, different perspective of her."

Another cinemagoer, Nathan Sayers, said he had "read a lot about her" ahead of the film's release.

"What brought me was a lot of buzz among friends," added Sayers, 53, who concluded the A24 film was in his "top five movies."

Kate Rennebohm, assistant professor of film studies at Lawrence University, said she had "students waiting after class every day to talk about the film – as well as emailing me out of the blue."

Weaving a web combining reality TV, mockumentary and exaggerated naivety, Fielder peels back the layers of a convicted liar who nonetheless does everything to convince the viewer, and maybe herself, she is truthful.

Throughout the lengthy immersion in Holmes's weird world, the viewer is invited to grapple with the question of whether the former billionaire businesswoman truly believed she created a medical marvel, and whether she was manipulated by others.

"The story just changes in so many ways, and I feel like the villain also changes a lot in the story too," said New Yorker Avery Smith, 27.

'Deny, deny, deny' 

"The film has fully transcended the documentary label," said Nora Stone, an assistant professor of film production at the University of North Alabama.

The film, which has generated persistent Oscar buzz and pulled in some $80 million at the domestic box office, has benefited from the marketing muscle of the A24 studio, she added.

Columbia University researcher Geoffrey Lokke said the filmmakers' call to fans not to spread spoilers "added to its intrigue and mystery."

None of the film's participants emerge unscathed. Even the producers themselves catch strays for their handling of the film's anti-heroes, including Holmes's husband.

Through the film's slow-burn, Holmes becomes a cypher for the explosion of power and influence wielded by the tech giants in the age of AI, according to Rennebohm.

"(She) inevitably represents the broader ethos of self-delusion and reality-denial underlying Silicon Valley and the American tech industry," she told AFP.

Stone, the film professor, said that "You Can See Everything" is about something even bigger, mirroring the political moment.

"It is a perfect encapsulation of the post-truth era," she said.

"Elizabeth Holmes does exactly what Donald Trump does – deny, deny, deny."

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