Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

When Enron collapsed in 2001 it was the seventh largest company in America. Twenty thousand people lost their jobs and their retirement savings evaporated because they were tied to the stock. The documentary explains step by step how the company kept showing profits: money assumed to be earned in the future was written into the books as if already earned. The subject is not fraud but everyone choosing not to look because it suited them. Auditors, banks, stock analysts and journalists praised the company for years; the film refuses to confine the guilt to one room. The form is journalism. Executives' own recorded remarks, congressional hearings and interviews with former employees are set one after another. The recorded phone calls made during the California blackouts are the harshest passage; the energy traders discuss the outages directly and laugh. The source is the book of the same name by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. McLean was among the first reporters to ask how the company actually made money. The film was nominated for an Oscar. Alex Gibney directs; Peter Coyote narrates. Who it is for: viewers interested in financial scandal and corporate documentary. Who it is not for: anyone bored by technical detail; the accounting is central.