NATHAN FIELDER NEGOTIATED A KILL SWITCH TO BURY HIS ELIZABETH HOLMES DOC

Nathan Fielder did not think the world needed another Elizabeth Holmes project, and honestly, fair. There was a book, a podcast, a Hulu series and two documentaries already. So before shooting anything, he got A24 to hand over the money, leave him alone, and write in a kill switch so he could bury the movie if it turned out to be the same story in a black turtleneck. Co-director Lance Oppenheim says that clause is what made the whole thing possible. What Fielder got instead was 34 days with Holmes, her partner Billy Evans and their two kids at the family's San Diego home, right before she reported for an 11-year sentence for defrauding Theranos investors. The back half picks up two years later with Holmes locked up and unavailable to film. A24 screened it in secret at Telluride on September 6, dropped the trailer the same day, and sold the rest on spoiler panic. It opened October 16 in 855 theaters, finished second for the weekend with $15.6 million, and is now past $18 million domestic. Letterboxd has it at a 4.8 average across roughly 145,000 reviews, 73 percent of them five stars, which makes it the highest-rated feature in the site's history, above Seven Samurai, 12 Angry Men and The Godfather Part II. Those movies took decades. This one did it over a weekend, from an audience that would five-star Fielder quietly rereading his own contract.

Why you should give a shit: A guy so convinced he had nothing new to say that he bought himself an off switch now owns the best-reviewed movie of the year, so go this week, before some dipshit in your group chat spoils the twist A24 built an entire campaign around keeping quiet.