You can see You Can See Everything everywhere
The documentary You Can See Everything about Elizabeth Holmes is a box-office hit, an awards season contender and a social media obsession.
Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos founder and convicted fraudster, has become a meme machine
Christine Pagulayan · CBC News
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Some movies leave you with a memorable line. You Can See Everything leaves you with a face inches from yours and plenty of parodies.
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's movie about Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos founder and convicted fraudster, has become a meme machine, powered by the film's most unnerving visual signature: close talking. Online, the answer has been to turn the pauses, the proximity, the dead-serious eye contact and that discomfort into a format.
You Can See Everything sells out theatres, and people can't stop talking about it
Loved You Can See Everything? Thank Canada
The latest take came on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where Jamie Lee Curtis played Holmes and Fallon took on Fielder. They delivered a shot-for-shot remake of of one of the film's most intense exchanges.
With tense music underneath, Fallon mirrored Fielder's measured questions and subtle expressions while Curtis held Holmes's wide-eyed stare and repeated her lines, including, "I'm engaging with you as a human being." The pair stayed in character until Fallon walked away and Curtis broke the tension.
The spoof quickly won over viewers online, with fans calling it Emmy-worthy and some saying Fallon looked so much like Fielder they briefly thought it was him.
WATCH | The Tonight Show parody:
This Hour Has 22 Minutes borrows the film's close-talking tension for a parody negotiation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
As Trump insists he isn't lying, Carney asks, "So you won't try to make Canada the 51st state?"
Trump promises he won't, then admits, "I lied."
Their face-to-face exchange spirals into an absurd argument about truth and trust, with Carney struggling to follow Trump's shifting story.
WATCH | This Hour has 22 Minutes parody:
The joke made its way to Washington Square Park in New York City, where dozens gathered for a Holmes and Fielder lookalike contest. Organized by comedian Maddy West and a friend, the event drew more than 200 registration responses.
The winners were Nicole Travolta, an actor and comedian who has been impersonating Holmes since 2022, and Joe Sivick, whose resemblance to Fielder was convincing enough to briefly fool one of the organizers.
Fans react online
On platforms including X, Instagram, TikTok and Reddit, users have also been reacting to Holmes and Fielder's real-life exchanges, even making parodies of their own. One Reddit user reimagined the film as You Can Eat Anything.
Other memes transplant the film's dead-serious dialogue into everyday situations. One X user posted, "It's finally fall, we're going apple picking with my college friends next Sunday at 1 pm."
A user on Reddit re-shared this one, which said, "My cat telling me she hasn't been fed yet. Why would I deceive you? There's no reason for me to do that."
A reddit user re-shared this meme that says, 'My cat telling me she hasn't been fed yet. Why would I deceive you? There's no reason for me to do that.' (jhovudi1/Reddit)
Box office success
The film's reach extends beyond social media. It took in more than $15 million US during its opening weekend, the second-largest opening weekend for a non-musical documentary in domestic box office history, behind only 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11.
It's also currently the highest-rated movie in Rotten Tomatoes history, currently sitting at 97 per cent fresh. The audience response has also prompted A24 to mount an ambitious Oscars campaign, seeking consideration for You Can See Everything in categories including best picture and best director — an unprecedented push for a feature documentary.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christine Pagulayan is a Toronto-based producer and writer with CBC News, currently with the Entertainment unit. She has worked in various roles at CBC News Network and The National. She has also worked as a multiplatform reporter in Toronto, Winnipeg, Halifax and Moncton. You can reach her at christine.pagulayan@cbc.ca.
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