Vail Daily Reviews Split on Summer Films You Can See Everything and Clayface

Aspen —The most interesting thing about the current summer movie slate isn’t what’s in theaters. It’s what’s missing from them.

To hear the critics tell it, we are living in a strange era of cinematic identity crisis. We have two films currently playing that seem to be asking the same question from opposite directions: Who is actually telling you the story? And does it matter if the truth is real, or just effective?

The Vail Daily’s “Movie Guru” column takes a hard look at both, and the verdicts are split.

Take “You Can See Everything.” On paper, it’s a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos CEO currently serving 11 years in prison. You know the name. You’ve seen the Netflix series. But this isn’t a rehash of the facts. It’s a performance art piece involving Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, who use Holmes’ own words to construct a narrative that feels more like theater than journalism.

The column argues that the film is “absolutely fascinating,” even if it isn’t a masterpiece. The key distinction here is intent. Traditional documentaries lay out basic facts. This one digs into psychology and storytelling, asking a more unsettling question: Is it even possible to really see everything? And if you do, who’s the one showing it to you?

It’s a necessary bump for the genre. The Vail Daily reported that many streaming docuseries are interested in spectacle rather than substance, but this film brings a layer of art to the form that is often missing. It’s three stars out of four, largely because it forces you to confront the gap between truth and performance.

Then there is “Clayface.” This one suffers from a different kind of identity crisis, but it’s more obvious.

If you watch “Clayface” as a dark action revenge thriller, it’s a perfectly decent little movie. Tom Rhys Harries makes us feel for the main character, and Naomi Ackie is good in her role as an accidental Dr. Frankenstein figure. There are solid horror moments — seeing a character cut their own eyelids back open may make some squeamish — and plenty of satisfying revenge scenes.

But that’s not what it’s sold as. It’s billed as DC universe body horror, and unfortunately, it falls short in both categories.

For genre fans of body horror, the film pulls back every time you’d want it to push ahead. It doesn’t commit to the gross-out factor that defines the subgenre. For DC fans, it’s even more disappointing. The Gotham in this film is “disappointingly pedestrian,” missing the dramatic aesthetics necessary for an accurate portrayal. The column points out a glaring inconsistency: this is supposedly set in the same universe as Batman and Joker, but it’s clearly not a city where they exist. It’s not even sure if Bruce Wayne is in the building.

The math holds up only if you ignore the marketing. As a dark action movie, it’s satisfying. As a DC body horror film, it’s confused.

The contrast between these two films is stark. “You Can See Everything” embraces ambiguity as a feature, using the blurring of lines between documentary and performance to ask deeper questions. “Clayface” tries to be three things at once, action, horror, and superhero - and ends up being none of them fully.

The question is whether audiences will reward the risk-taking in the documentary or punish the inconsistency in the blockbuster. For now, the column suggests that if you want a challenging watch, go see Holmes. If you just want to be entertained by a decent action movie with a weird twist, “Clayface” will do the job.

As the Vail Daily concluded on “You Can See Everything,” it’s a necessary bump to that particular branch of the documentary genre, and I hope that those looking to work in that branch are inspired by it.