I have been fascinated by Elizabeth Holmes ever since I read “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” (2018), by John Carreyrou. Prior to the book’s publication, Mr. Carreyrou published a series of articles in the WSJ exposing that Theranos, the company founded by Holmes, was a fraud! The story of Holmes and Theranos is also well told in the Hulu TV miniseries “The Dropout,” starring Amanda Seyfried as Holmes. This role won her Emmy and Golden Globe awards, and she deserved them. (It’s a great show!)
In brief, Theranos was founded by Holmes in 2003. She had dropped out of Stanford at 19 to pursue her vison of developing a small black box that could run 100s of blood tests, from simple to very complex, using only one drop of blood. If successful, this company would put Quest Labs and LabCorp out of business! Unfortunately, the device never worked, but Homes and her lover, “Sunny” Balwani (President and COO of Theranos), covered up this problem by running the blood tests on standard blood analyzers. The SEC charged Holmes with Civil Fraud in 3/2018, and, in 6/2018, she received a federal indictment for wire fraud. Theranos completely shut down in 9/2018. Elizabeth always proclaimed her innocence (and still does), despite the overwhelming evidence against her. She was convicted in 1/2022 (along with “Sunny,” who had a separate trial) and began serving an 11-year prison sentence in 5/2023. Holmes has ultimate charisma and deceived billionaire savvy investors, such as Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison. Her Board included heavyweights such as Henry Kissinger and General James Mattis. Investors lost 945 million dollars and Theranos was valued at 9 billion dollars at its peak!
Getting to the documentary, Holmes herself and her husband, Billy Evans, as well as Co-Director Nathan Fielder and the beautiful Amanda Seyfried are the stars. The documentary begins about 30 days before Elizabeth is about to start her 11-year jail sentence. Elizabeth and Billy have a son, William (7/10/21), and an infant daughter, Invicta (2/23). Although stating multiple times that she is broke, the family is living in either a condo or house right on the Del Mar beach. (Perhaps Holmes knows how to budget very well.) Fielder (also a comic) runs the camera almost continuously. We see their day-to-day lives, hanging out, taking care of their children, etc. Fielder, with multiple interviews of Holmes and Evans (both apart and together), tries to understand Holmes. Did she lie from the beginning, or only after she realized that the box was a dud and there was no turning back? Elizabeth claims (very sincerely) that she never lied, and hasn’t ever told a white lie in her entire life! Billy tells Fielder that he believes her and doesn’t think she ever lied either. Holmes still believes in her blood box and is working on a second prototype with “new technology.” She is seeking investors for this new venture. Billy is a narcissistic, controlling asshole, but Holmes essentially surrenders all control to him.
Fielder is a confrontive interviewer and tries to get at the truth, but that is impossible with Holmes. She has these big, wide, blue eyes and looks so sincere. She cries at just the right time. Homes’ mind doesn’t work like everyone else’s. There is an amazing scene when Fielder plays the iconic Abbott and Costello comedy bit “Who’s on First,” but Holmes doesn’t get it, even though she’s a genius. Is she amazingly self-deluded or the most manipulative sociopath the world has ever known? Fielder is often funny, in a quirky sort of way, asking questions to try to corner Holmes, but somehow she manages to escape each time. (She may escape from jail, too, if she can transfer that skill to prison.) I think Fielder, even though he knows Holmes is guilty as sin, still has a warm spot in his heart for her. I think she started out honest and idealistic, made some bad choices when she could have come clean, and then ran out the string until she was caught. Just as likely, she might have been lying to everyone (including herself) the whole time.
The final part of the documentary involves Seyfried, after Holmes has gone to jail. I’m not going to reveal any more about this part, or I will spoil it.
Bottom Line: This is a truly unique film. A hybrid of documentary, reality show, and dark comedy. In “You Can See Everything,” you see much, but the truth about Holmes remains hidden.
