November 5, 2026 – This documentary movie is called a “metadocumentary” by some, due to its highly unusual nature, including extensive use of re-enactments of past events and the extensive on-screen presence of the film's director, and his on-screen discussions with a reenactment actress, who plays convicted felon Elizabeth Holmes.

I don't recall ever seeing a documentary in which the director appears on screen as often as Nathan Fielder does (well, maybe Werner Herzog in “Grizzly Man”). He seems to be on screen as much as Elizabeth Holmes, and her partner, Billy Evans do (they are supposed to be the subjects of this film). In the reenactment scenes, Amanda Seyfried (“The Housemaid”) plays Holmes. Seyfried also played Holmes in a miniseries, “The Dropout” (2022). In this movie, Fielder and Seyfried discuss real world events that seem to go well beyond how to play a character.

The genesis of this movie is when Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans invited Fielder and a film crew into their home (which is quite fancy by the way, despite their claims of being broke) a few weeks before Holmes had to go to prison for defrauding investors, wire fraud, and other related convictions. She is supposed to serve at least 9.5 years, but she won't be doing hard time (she's doing soft time in a minimum security Federal Prison Camp, Bryan, where Trump's former friend Ghislaine Maxwell hangs out) and I'd bet she probably won't serve the full sentence, or pay full restitution, either.

Fielder and his crew spent a lot of time in the home with the family, capturing the lives of Holmes, Evans and their kids. The movie is filled with close ups and intimate conversations. When Holmes turns those baby blue eyes and disarming smile at the camera and says she never told a lie, you can see why she was able to convince so many people to invest in her company, Theranos. I can see why people believed her when she told investors her miraculous machines could quickly and accurately diagnose a myriad of diseases using only a single drop of blood. That turned out to be a lie.

In the movie, however, Holmes tells Fielder that it was not a lie. She said her machines can do what she said they can do. Pressed on this, Holmes reveals that it is not a lie only because she is using a special (and nonsensical) definition of the word “can.” The Theranos can do multiple fast accurate diagnoses based on a small blood sample, provided certain sampling, testing and computer problems can be overcome. These problems have not been overcome, and may never be overcome, but Holmes still claims she isn't lying. Maybe she can get away with that kind of sophistry in a movie, but not in court.

While Holmes is very approachable and friendly, even in extreme closeups, while her partner, Billy Evans, appears to be more closed. He seems eager to shut down lines of questioning that he doesn't like. While Holmes is good at making herself appear to be a victim, Evans doesn't give that impression. He seems manipulative and evasive. The longer that Fielder hangs around these two, the more difficult it becomes to tell fact from fantasy. There's not a straight shooter in the bunch.

Amanda Seyfried, who is a terrific actress by the way, appears in some reenactments as Holmes, but she also appears as herself in this movie offering her own opinions about what is really going on. This seems weird to me. As far as I know, Seyfried has no first hand knowledge of the Theranos case, so I don't see that any speculation by her, or Fielder, for that matter, carries any weight at all.

For me, the Theranos case is simple. It was a spectacular case of fraud, and a lot of people got hurt, and at least two went to prison. No matter how innocent Holmes looks, and no matter how hard she tries to spin the truth, she is guilty of fraud, and her children will suffer for it. But this movie isn't about that. Instead, this movie gets caught up in the colorful personalities of Fielder, Holmes, Evans and Amanda Seyfried. While they are, in fact, an interesting bunch, I prefer more journalism and less soap opera. This movie rates a B.

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