Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 2005

A riveting beginner’s guide to the mind-boggling Enron crash.

“Less corporate noir than capitalist disaster film… Alex Gibney's soberly entertaining documentary – adapted from the book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind – provides a full account of the deregulatin' Texas con men who, reporting imaginary profits while concealing real losses, rode the bull market into America's largest bankruptcy… America's ‘most innovative company’ (per Fortune), Enron was created by preacher's son Ken Lay (or as George W. Bush called him, ‘Kenny Boy’) and administered by the Harvard-educated macho man Jeffrey Skilling, whose Gordon Gekkoid business philosophy advocated unlimited greed. Enron contributed mightily to Bush campaign coffers, but once its $30 billion debt emerged from a maze of creative accountancy, the corporation went from being the New Economy poster child to its Frankenstein monster.” — J. Hoberman, Village Voice

"Fiercely intelligent, terrifying and absurdly funny… It’s a bracing portrait of American power-lust run amok.” — Scott Foundas, LA Weekly