Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Oct 16, 2026 · 29 min · 15 segments
Comedian Nathan Fielder and filmmaker Lance Oppenheim have teamed up for a documentary about Theranos founder and notorious fraudster Elizabeth Holmes. Today on Commotion, film critic Adam Nayman…
Adam NaymanGuest
Elamin AbdelmahmoudHost
Chandler LevackGuestAlyssa BresnahanGuestI had this feeling of coming out of this movie and being like, "I need to call everyone I know, and I need to ask them questions about their lives.
I need to just understand how they experienced this movie." Alyssa, I feel like when I came out of this movie, the first feeling I was having is maybe free Elizabeth Holmes, and then the second feeling I was having is, is this the most manipulative person to live on this planet?
And then the third feeling is this is a documentary that created the entire pathway for me to land in this place.
And so I, I'll ask you, the, my first question to you is, as you were walking out of this movie theater, do you go, "I think Nathan Fielder has cr- ar- successfully troubled my notion of who Elizabeth Holmes is"?
The woman sitting next to me in the movie, like, we were in the bathroom afterwards washing our hands.
And I was like, "It's complicated?" Like, I couldn't actually give her, like, a, like, a true, like, solid answer, and I ...
Like, nothing I saw in this film seems to undermine the legitimacy of the charges she was found guilty of and sent to j- jail for.
But, um, I, I think I understand something more fundamental about her dynamic in relationships and her willingness-
And I see a lot of parallels between the relationship she had with Sunny Balwani, who was much older than her and who seemed to be someone she sort of placed a lot of faith in, um, to help her achieve her wildest dreams, and her current partner, Billy Evans, who emerged as a real savior for her in the aftermath of Theranos falling apart.
And, you know, if I were Elizabeth Holmes standing in that moment of failure, and I met somebody who fell in love with me, I would probably feel like no one in the entire world would ever love me again.
And that would be a really, really strong binding energy to what we did next together.
So I think both situations seem like pressure cookers that really encourage codependence and, like, place a really steadfast faith-
I had this feeling of coming out of this movie and being like, "I need to call everyone I know, and I need to ask them questions about their lives.
I need to just understand how they experienced this movie." Alyssa, I feel like when I came out of this movie, the first feeling I was having is maybe free Elizabeth Holmes, and then the second feeling I was having is, is this the most manipulative person to live on this planet?
And then the third feeling is this is a documentary that created the entire pathway for me to land in this place.
And so I, I'll ask you, the, my first question to you is, as you were walking out of this movie theater, do you go, "I think Nathan Fielder has cr- ar- successfully troubled my notion of who Elizabeth Holmes is"?
The woman sitting next to me in the movie, like, we were in the bathroom afterwards washing our hands.
And I was like, "It's complicated?" Like, I couldn't actually give her, like, a, like, a true, like, solid answer, and I ...
Like, nothing I saw in this film seems to undermine the legitimacy of the charges she was found guilty of and sent to j- jail for.
But, um, I, I think I understand something more fundamental about her dynamic in relationships and her willingness-
And I see a lot of parallels between the relationship she had with Sunny Balwani, who was much older than her and who seemed to be someone she sort of placed a lot of faith in, um, to help her achieve her wildest dreams, and her current partner, Billy Evans, who emerged as a real savior for her in the aftermath of Theranos falling apart.
And, you know, if I were Elizabeth Holmes standing in that moment of failure, and I met somebody who fell in love with me, I would probably feel like no one in the entire world would ever love me again.
And that would be a really, really strong binding energy to what we did next together.
So I think both situations seem like pressure cookers that really encourage codependence and, like, place a really steadfast faith-
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