SYNOPSIS

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, directed by Alex Gibney, is a chilling and meticulously crafted documentary that unravels the layers of deception, greed, and corporate malpractice that led to the downfall of what was once America’s seventh-largest company. Released in 2005 and based on the bestselling book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, the film serves as both an exposé of corruption and a cautionary tale about unchecked corporate power.

CINDIE SAYS:

What makes Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room so compelling is that the real events often feel stranger than fiction.

The film is structured like a financial thriller, revealing how Enron’s executives encouraged a ruthless corporate culture where employees were ranked and fired based on performance, and profits were often manufactured through shady accounting tactics like “mark-to-market” valuation—essentially counting hypothetical future earnings as present-day revenue.

Director Alex Gibney, who would later win an Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), approached the story not just as a documentary but as a psychological study of greed. Rather than drowning viewers in dry financial jargon, he translates complex accounting fraud into gripping visual storytelling.