Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

Country: USA
Director: Alex Gibney
Production Co: Magnolia Pictures
Genre: Documentary
Rating: 7.6/10
Length: 113 mins

Storyline

Enron dives from the seventh largest US company to bankruptcy in less than a year in this tale told chronologically. The emphasis is on human drama, from suicide to 20,000 people sacked: the personalities of Ken Lay (with Falwellesque rectitude), Jeff Skilling (he of big ideas), Lou Pai (gone with $250 M), and Andy Fastow (the dark prince) dominate. Along the way, we watch Enron game California's deregulated electricity market, get a free pass from Arthur Andersen (which okays the dubious mark-to-market accounting), use greed to manipulate banks and brokerages (Merrill Lynch fires the analyst who questions Enron's rise), and hear from both Presidents Bush what great guys these are.—

Plot Keywords

corporate crime, corporation, topless woman, nudity, porn star, profanity, power outage, f word, suicide, stripper, fraud, stock market, texas, 2000s, accountant, cover up, expose, reenactment, electricity, business

Short Review

Gibney's film never forgets the human side: the macho execs nearly killing themselves on boys' vacations with motorbikes, sky-diving and general risk-enhanced bonding; the suicide of one, the scapegoat imprisonment of another.