This is a documentary on steroids. Co-directors Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder (who also acts as the film's interviewer) have created a film that goes beyond the limits of a standard documentary.
Elizabeth Holmes was the CEO and brainchild behind Theranos, a company that claimed to be making a small machine that, with one drop of blood could diagnosis multiple diseases. She raised over half a billion dollars on false promises as the machine didn't work. Investors eventually lost millions and she was found guilty of fraud in 2023 and sentenced to eleven years in jail. Her story was dramatized in 2022 as a HULU episodic show called "The Dropout", starring Amanda Seyfried as Ms. Holmes. It's a good point of context before seeing the documentary, but not mandatory. The film makes many references to the show and features Mr. Fielder showing actual scenes to Ms. Holmes which are very impactful.
After sentencing, Mr. Oppenheim and Mr. Fielder were granted 24/7 access to Ms. Holmes shortly before she went to prison. It was her intention to give her side of the story and hopefully be seen in a sympathetic light. Mr. Fielder is not a professional interviewer and many of his reaction shots to his questions are priceless. What does come to light over the course of the film is remarkable and probably not what Ms. Holmes intended. It is an intimate portrait of a woman and her partner, Billy Evans, that almost defies logic.
Besides Ms. Holmes, Mr. Evans and Mr. Fielder, the film also features Amanda Seyfried as herself and reprising her role as Ms. Holmes in recreated scenes that could not be filmed. Also featured for the same reason is Christopher Abbott as Mr. Evans in certain recreations. We also meet Ms. Holmes parents in a few very raw and emotional scenes.
The subject of this documentary is a woman who cannot be easily defined and still proclaims to have done nothing wrong. See the film and judge her for yourself.
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