‘Everyone here wants to have sex with Nathan Fielder’ - CNN

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains spoilers for “You Can See Everything.”

Since Joanie Montgomery saw Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary “ You Can See Everything ” last weekend, there has been one moment she can’t get out of her mind: a shot of Fielder wearing briefs and swimming in the ocean with his subject, Elizabeth Holmes. “It was very intimate, and he looked really beautiful,” said Montgomery, a 33-year-old Philadelphia-based drag artist who performs as Diva Baby. “I need him so bad. I don’t know what else to say.”

Fielder and Oppenheim’s word-of-mouth sensation has taken pop culture by storm, earning millions at the box office, winning near-universal critical praise and generating a ton of press coverage, as well as Oscar buzz. And yet, one of the more surprising and surreal things to emerge from the film’s release — at least to those who found Fielder’s gangly presence to be entirely awkward and strange, in keeping with his prior work — has been the vocal contingent of viewers who came out thinking he’s a certified stud.

“I was blown away by the film, but also now feel deeply affectionate towards Nathan Fielder,” said Dallas, a 28-year-old writer in New York, who asked, like others in this story, to be referred to by just her first name. “I walked out of the theater being like, ‘I have competition because I want to have sex with Nathan Fielder and everyone here wants to have sex with Nathan Fielder.’”

Nathan Fielder’s movie on Elizabeth Holmes absolutely lives up to the hype

Across social media, others who’ve seen “You Can See Everything” have spoken of their subsequent desire to, well, see everything of Fielder. On TikTok, women have praised him for being “assertive while calm…confident without bravado” and for seeming “snuggleable.” Others have said that any straight men confused by the reactions to Fielder are proving they will never truly understand the complexities of the female gaze.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on in the background of his mind. Like, there’s this whole control panel room, carefully thinking of what to say,” said Sophia, a 20-year-old University of Toronto student. “I think that’s definitely very attractive.”

‘I just wanted them all to kiss’

This film is not the first time Fielder has been declared something of a sex symbol. When he released “The Rehearsal” in 2022 on HBO, New York magazine’s The Cut wrote about Fielder’s “strange sex appeal,” noting his specific mix of intellect, vulnerability and control. At the same time, the Daily Beast reported on the Fielder fandom, with devotees praising his voice, competence and willingness to debase himself for the camera. “There is something attractive about a person whose appeal is so raw, so innate, so against expectation, that we have to spend time figuring out what it is,” wrote Marianne Eloise.

But while T-shirts with Fielder’s face on them have been available for several years now, the unique cultural moment that “You Can See Everything” is enjoying has unlocked a legion of new fervent fans. That includes Dallas, who said she came into her Wednesday night screening without any real feelings for Fielder, but left with a new object of affection. “The movie is all extreme close-up shots of everyone’s face for three hours straight, and so it was almost this illusion of what it would feel like to like be close to him or be in the room with him,” she said. “I found myself really loving that feeling.”

In addition to the way the film is shot, viewers have described a palpable sexual tension or chemistry underscoring the movie (and even its short teaser trailer ) between the film’s main subjects: Fielder, Holmes, her romantic partner Billy Evans and the actor Amanda Seyfried. The movie is replete with long moments of silence, intense stares and gentle teasing and probing among the four that can feel particularly electric to some viewers. In one sequence, Evans showers nude for Fielder and his crew. In another, Seyfried and Fielder converse intimately by a fireplace.

‘You Can See Everything’ becomes one of the biggest documentary releases in decades