Stories
Elizabeth Holmes Phenomenon Drives Hollywood Success With New Documentary Hit
- •Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's new documentary You Can See Everything has become a massive box office hit, grossing $15 million from only 855 screens in North America.
- •The film, which chronicles the life of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, has received critical acclaim with a 99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
- •Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford at age 19 to found Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup that falsely promised to revolutionize blood testing using minimal samples.
- •After investigative reports by the Wall Street Journal exposed the fraud, Holmes was convicted of wire fraud in 2022 and sentenced to federal prison.
- •Experts attribute the enduring media fascination with Holmes to themes of ambition, Silicon Valley culture, and her rare status as a female tech founder.
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Co-directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the 174-minute documentary follows Elizabeth Holmes during the 34 days before she reported to federal prison. Fielder moved into the home of Holmes and her partner Billy Evans, beginning what evolved into a three-year filmmaking experiment and a mind-bending look at her life before incarceration.
In 2022, Holmes was convicted of wire fraud for misrepresenting what Theranos technology could do to investors. She was acquitted of patient-related fraud charges, and in November 2022, she was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison, a term that a judge later reduced to 123 months.
Holmes dropped out of Stanford at age 19 to found Theranos in 2003, promising to run hundreds of blood tests using a pinprick of blood. The startup attracted major investors like Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison, pushing its valuation to $9 billion by 2014 and earning Holmes recognition as a young self-made billionaire.
