You Can See Everything is a very Jewish Film

Last night my wife and I went to see You can See Everything, the latest film by Nathan Fielder. I have no specifics but this review contains some spoilers.

If you aren't familiar with Fielder's work, especially his recent work much of it revolves around a simulacra. That puts it in line with other Jewish creators such as Charlie Kaufman and Sasha Baron Cohen.

But You Can See Everything is beyond that, It, like the Rehearsal, peels back layers and layers on the subjects, Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans, but then, as is Fielder's signature move, a new layer is revealed, and then another, until the filmmaker finally turns the entire premise of the film on himself, questioning the very premise of not only the film, but the filmmaker. As my wife put it, it's an entire Talmudic passage, with multiple rabbis, told by one man to himself.

Adding into this is another point about Jewish storytelling. In traditional Jewish stories there is no central climax, no lesson, no saving grace. That's not what Jewish stories are about and what differentiates them from Christian or at least hegemonic stories. You Can See Everything similarly both has and doesn't have an ending. It leaves the viewer at a stopping point, but not one with a conclusion or place of satisfaction.

It's a Jewish story through and through, from a man I believe to be a one in a generation thinker. This film will taunt me for weeks.