This documentary explores the fall of the Enron Corporation, arguably the most shocking example of modern corporate corruption. The company is linked with several illegal schemes, including instigating the California energy crisis as a way to drive up utility prices at the expense of the average American. In a hyper-competitive environment, Enron traders resort to all kinds of underhanded dealings in order to make money at any cost and keep their high-paying jobs.

Before seeing "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," I'd read enough about the Enron scandals to know I'd never want to be seated at the same table as Ken Lay. Still, watching Alex Gibney's riveting documentary made my jaw drop and my hackles rise. If a novelist--Tom Wolfe, say--had made up this tale of greed, vanity, corruption and corporate machismo run amok, critics would have questioned its plausibility. Fiction, as Philip Roth pointed out many years ago, can't compete with the outrageousness of reality
David Ansen
Newsweek