Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes became the first and youngest American female billionaire when she claimed to have invented a machine that could predict any type of illness in a person, from one drop of blood.
Just one problem… it was a complete fraud and she was sentenced to eleven years gaol and ordered to pay back millions to investors.
Her story was depicted very well in the 2026 biopic, The Dropout which I think is still on SBS On Demand. To fully understand this documentary You Can See Everything, you need to see The Dropout for context, that is unless you’re versed on the history of this corporate disaster.
Nathan Fielder, a deadpan comic and youtube hero, was invited and agreed to make a documentary on Holmes and her partner Billy starting from a month before she enters prison.
Holmes, still convinced she did nothing wrong, is a complex character to say the least and her husband has narcissistic, controlling qualities. Fielder sets out to capture the truth of what happened to Holmes’s company Theranos and its demise but uncovers much more.
What sets this apart from any documentary we have seen before is how Fielder, when hitting obstacles gaining access to Holmes, uses the original actor from The Dropout, Amanda Seyfried, to act out Holmes’s actual recordings Fielder has obtained when the cameras were off.
It’s a stroke of genius and ensures the momentum flows in what is a long three hour film. It certainly didn’t feel it. In fact we were disappointed to see it end.
The camera work is extremely intimate and creates a very real psychological tension. An unexpectedly compelling film. A very strong 8/10.
One of the benefits of Palace Cinemas taking over the glorious Regent Theatre in Ballarat, is that local punters can now get access to sneak previews as you would in Melbourne.
Not all previews are a success such as one we saw today but I thought I had done enough sufficient homework. Sadly not.
Fatherland is a German film that had won this year’s best director at Canne and featured the brilliant actor Sandra Huller, she of the Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall, two of the best films from the last few years. Expectations set fairly high at that point.
Unfortunately it is one of the most mundane and lifeless experiences I’ve had for a while. The only saviour was the beautiful black and white it was filmed in.
It’s a true story of Nobel Prize winning writer Professor Thomas Mann and his multi-talented daughter Erika driving around Germany and Poland giving anti-fascism speeches after being in exile during WW2. Thomas’s son Klaus, another award winning writer gets a small part but we didn’t feel invested in any of them.
It wasn’t till we Googled their histories after the film that we gained any insight into their lives. Having said that I doubt even if you were a German Literary academic, whether they’d find any joy in this film either. 4/10
A quick capsule review of a couple of a few other films we saw recently:
- Primetime. Unintelligent, puerile and pointless rubbish about a hypothetical reality program based on catching paedophiles. 2/10
- Coyote versus Acme. For those who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s this a homage to all things Looney Tunes. Lots of fun. 7/10
- Digger. Canned because it was a box office flop, this is Tom Cruise’s best film yet! Directed by Alejandro Inarritu who brought us Birdman, this is another clever film that perhaps had too much irony for the US audiences. 7.5/10
