The record-breaking box-office performance of the recently released film You Can See Everything is having positive ripple effects. Not only has the bar been raised for documentaries — that’s what the film was marketed as — but You Can See Everything is also compelling audiences to revisit the Theranos scandal. The film follows Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the health-tech company, in the days leading up to her imprisonment for financial fraud. Co-directed by Nathan Fielder, who also appears in the three-hour film, You Can See Everything delivered the biggest box-office opening for a documentary since Fahrenheit 9/11. This week, it became the first documentary to top the domestic box-office chart while playing in fewer than 1,000 screens, overtaking Street Fighter.
Also directed by Lance Oppenheim, You Can See Everything has grossed $20 million domestically in less than a week of release, and is poised to explode upon its nationwide expansion on Friday. Projections see it dueling with the DC Studios release Clayface for the number-one spot on the weekend box-office chart. A24 gave the movie a textbook platform release, following one of the best-executed marketing strategies in recent times. Its existence was kept secret until it premiered at the Telluride Film Festival a few weeks ago, and its success can largely be attributed to A24 having convinced audiences of its event-movie status.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.
The Silence of the Lambs · Hannibal · 1991–2002
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.
Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on.
The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
Batman · The Dark Knight · 1989–2019
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for.
His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong.
He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Sherlock Holmes · The Final Problem · Since 1893
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room.
This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing.
It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
No Country for Old Men · 2007
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are.
No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
Call it. He will wait.
Elizabeth Holmes Remains As Intriguing a Cultural Figure As Ever
Thanks to You Can See Everything‘s early success, Variety reports that a limited series based on Holmes’ rise and fall — The Dropout — saw a 186% viewership increase in September, in comparison to the month before. Viewership for The Dropout increased by 92% in the week of October 12, compared to the previous week. Starring Amanda Seyfried as Holmes, The Dropout debuted on Hulu in 2022 and went on to win several accolades. The eight-episode series now holds a “Certified Fresh” 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “The Dropout succeeds more as a docudrama than a dark comedy, but Amanda Seyfried’s disquieting portrayal of Elizabeth Holmes brings fresh blood to this retelling of recent history.” Meanwhile, You Can See Everything is sitting at a 97% score on the aggregator website.
