Why Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Is Generating So Much Buzz

There was no shortage of reporting on Silicon Valley con artist Elizabeth Holmes. Her biotech startup, Theranos, reached a peak valuation of $9 billion in 2014 before its supposedly revolutionary blood-testing machine was revealed to be vaporware. Books, magazine articles, documentaries and television dramas have all explored the scandal.

So why is the upcoming release receiving so much attention? Everything Is Visible is yet another documentary about Holmes—and it runs for three hours.

Much of the excitement comes from Nathan Fielder, who co-directed the documentary with Lance Oppenheim. Fielder is a cult television writer and performer, and fans have been anticipating his perspective on Holmes since rumors surfaced last year that he would visit her in prison.

Now that Fielder appears ready to move beyond his devoted fan base and reach movie audiences, it is worth paying attention. This is not a typical documentary. Fielder has built a career around surreal situations and carefully constructed chaos. To understand what his analysis of Holmes might look like, consider the unusual style that has defined his work.

Nathan Fielder’s Unusual Approach to Business and Comedy

One reason Fielder makes sense as an interlocutor for one of the most notorious figures in big tech is his history of turning business schemes into comedy. In his breakout television series, Nathan for You (2013–2017), he devised and carried out bizarre publicity stunts for struggling small businesses. He jokes that he “graduated with very good grades from one of Canada’s top business schools,” but unlike Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford, he did graduate.

Andrew Bricker, an associate professor of English at Ghent University and academic coordinator of the research project “Democratic Literacy and Humor,” wrote in an email that Fielder has consistently played an altered version of himself throughout his career, leaving audiences unsure of who he really is.

Fielder “made the line between personality and individuality very blurred, undecidable, and indefinable,” Bricker said. “None of us is totally in on the joke.”

The Surreal Perspective Behind the Documentary

Nathan for You and Fielder’s subsequent HBO series, The Rehearsal, established Fielder’s distinctive persona. Bricker describes him as “a kind of eccentric problem solver,” or what he sometimes calls “an engineer’s brain,” who views the world through a radically simplified framework of problems and solutions—even when those solutions create entirely new problems.