Is the cringe comedian Nathan Fielder cocky or insecure? A conniving prankster or a hapless do-gooder? Sincere or buried under layers of irony? His hard-to-read demeanor is an integral part of his comedy: As his subjects and the audience try to parse that, the nervous giggles ensue.
Fielder is also behind one of the most anticipated documentaries of the year, “You Can See Everything,” which he directed alongside Lance Oppenheim (“Primetime”). The film, out Friday, follows the disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, in the days before she is to report to federal prison camp to serve her sentence for her conviction of four counts of fraud. The film’s surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in September stirred up a near-frantic buzz that only intensified after the screening at the New York Film Festival.
To the uninitiated, it might seem odd that a comedian is directing a documentary, but Fielder’s work often employs documentarian practices to humorous effect and blurs the line between reality and fiction. Before you see “Everything” (or after) — here’s a guide to everything else Fielder.
2013–17
‘Nathan for You’
Streaming on HBO Max, Hulu and Paramount Plus
What started as “Nathan on Your Side,” a segment on the Canadian news comedy program “This Hour Has 22 Minutes,” grew into Fielder’s first series. In it, the comic, who says he “graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades,” comes up with outlandish plans to help out small businesses.
A frozen yogurt shop debuts a new excrement flavor to draw in customers; a bar stages an elaborate play to allow patrons to smoke indoors; an out-of-work mall Santa offers discount photos in July — all harebrained schemes that take typical marketing tactics and turn them on their heads.
“Nathan for You” combines the energy of a prank show (including, arguably, some of the cruelty) with the structure of business-improvement series like “Kitchen Nightmares.” The best known of these stunts may be “Dumb Starbucks,” in which Fielder helped a struggling Los Angeles coffee shop rebrand as the giant chain thanks to laws regarding parodies. The antic made national news, with some even speculating that the artist Banksy was behind it.
The show introduced audiences to Fielder’s awkward persona, proclivity for mixing documentary and comedy and knack for committing wholeheartedly to a ridiculous bit with an utterly straight face.
2022–25
‘The Rehearsal’
Streaming on HBO Max
Fielder’s critically acclaimed follow-up to “Nathan for You” combined some of the elements from the earlier show — the docu-comedy, the elaborate setups, Fielder’s persona — and an HBO-size budget. Inspired by the unpredictability of life and human behavior, Fielder tries to help himself and others prepare for difficult moments by creating intricate stages for rehearsals.
The first season starts with a man getting ready to confess to his trivia team that he lied about having a college degree. Fielder employs a full-scale replica of the Brooklyn bar where the trivia night is held and fills it with actors. Later, Fielder aims to help a woman decide if she wants to have children or not, using yet another large set along with child actors and even a robot baby.
In the second season, Fielder tackled airplane safety, arguing that a large portion of plane crashes are caused by miscommunication in the cockpit. Cue the full-scale airport replica, a surreal re-creation of the pilot Chesley Sullenberger’s life and Fielder’s successful effort to obtain his own pilot’s license.
Always toying with reality, the show makes viewers question what they are seeing. Frequently, something presented as straightforward truth will be revealed as just another rehearsal led by Fielder as the director with a laptop harnessed to his chest.
2023–24
‘The Curse’
Streaming on Paramount+
This twisty, uncategorizable puzzle of a show represented Fielder’s first foray into pure fiction. Fielder and Benny Safdie created this drama-thriller-horror-cringe comedy about a newlywed couple (Fielder and Emma Stone) struggling to navigate their tumultuous relationship while filming an HGTV show about eco-friendly homes. Fielder takes his usual awkward, desperate-to-be-loved persona and plays it against a skilled actress. Safdie plays their pushy (and sometimes creepy) producer.
Even in the realm of fiction, Fielder explores questions of truth, the power of framing and the ethics of reality television as the cast and crew try to do good but tie themselves into increasingly complicated knots. The sequences of the show-within-a-show contrasted with what we see behind the scenes reminds us that truth is in the eye of the editor.
Things get increasingly strange, and the 10-episode show ends with a shocking, surreal finale that must be seen to be believed.
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