It’s difficult to have missed the online discourse about the American documentary film You Can See Everything.
However, if you live in Denmark, you may have been able to see the discourse, but not the actual film which is currently playing in cinemas in North America.
That’s because the movie hasn’t been released anywhere in Europe. That’s about to change. On Monday, the Danish distributor for the film, SF Studios, announced a release date.
Box-office record breaker
The film has drawn one headline after another during its run in US cinemas.
Reviews were exceptional. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a score of 98%, while on aggregator Metacritic, it holds a score of 97.
In its review, The Guardian calls the film a “masterpiece”, the Financial Times calls the movie “mind-bending”, and RogerEbert.com suggested the film could “advance a new cinematic language in the mainstream non-fiction sphere”.
Then, on its opening weekend in the US, the film took in 15.6 million US dollars domestically (roughly 104 million Danish kroner). This figure represented the highest opening weekend for a documentary in the US since Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004.
Elizabeth Holmes up close
The film explores the businesswoman and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes. It follows her in the days leading up to the start of her prison sentence, and further explores her story as founder of Theranos.
It is co-directed by Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder, whose recent HBO documentary show The Rehearsal also garnered rave reviews.
The production was given permission to follow Holmes closely, before recruiting Amanda Seyfried, who played Holmes in a mini-series, to further explore the story.
Late release in Denmark
It is not uncommon for American films to be released later in Europe and Denmark, either due to the lack of a distributor or to avoid competing with Danish films.
However, the excitement around this film and the lack of a release date brought one of Politiken’s critics to the typewriter, complaining that “There is a ball at the castle, while Cinderella sits at home reading reviews.”
However, now a release date has been set: 19 November.
In a press release, Frederik Malling Juul, head of theatrical distribution at SF Studios, wrote, “The distribution agreement has just been finalised, and we have been working to get the film out to Danish audiences as quickly as possible. We promise that the wait will be worth it.”
