A24's "You Can See Everything" Is the Surprise Documentary Blockbuster of the Year

A three-hour experimental documentary just became one of the year’s biggest box office stories.“You Can See Everything,”directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, has earned over $45 million in ticket sales after only two weekends, making it the biggest documentary hit in years. The film centers on Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans, but it’s really a close, unsettling study of those relationships, including the one between its subjects and Fielder himself.

What’s striking is the timing. A24 shut down its documentary division a year ago, and the theatrical documentary business has been struggling while streaming budgets tighten. Yet this film is now on track to become one of A24’s most successful releases ever. Critics credit its breakout to Fielder’s habit of confronting awkward moments head-on, starting with a scene involving a bowl of raw eggs that sets the tone for everything that follows.

The hit arrives alongside a wave of ambitious documentaries like“My Undesirable Friends,”“NAZA,”“One in a Million,”“Closure,”“Once Upon a Time in Harlem,”and“The History of Concrete.”Together they suggest audiences are gravitating toward messy, real-life characters over polished fiction. As one observer put it, a documentary might be the only place you can see yourself. So, which documentary has stuck with you the longest?