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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 37 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 37
  3. Negative: 0 out of 37
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  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    Spellbinding.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    100
    With no-nonsense narration by Peter Coyote and a soundtrack that's at once apt, ironic and really, really good, The Smartest Guys in the Room is anything but a dry dissection of a major Wall Street debacle.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Curiel
    100
    More than worthwhile.
  4. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    100
    Delivers a polished and well-researched look at America 's largest corporate bankruptcy with a laser-sharp focus on the personalities, practices, and fates of the top executives behind the Enron meltdown.
  5. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    The movie grows richer as it goes along and contrasting pieces click together.
  6. Empire
    Reviewed by: Helen O'Hara
    100
    Despite the talking heads and grainy blow-ups of TV footage, the film boasts some rather gorgeous cinematography and moves briskly, with the interviews masterfully edited.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    100
    A deeply straightforward yet beautifully crafted documentary.
  8. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    91
    With this amoral business environment, it's not a question of if there will be another Enron, but when.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: James Greenberg
    90
    Not only a great cautionary tale, it's a civics lesson that should be seen by every concerned citizen.
  10. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    90
    Fiercely intelligent, terrifying and absurdly funny documentary.
  11. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    90
    A thoroughly professional, frequently spectacular piece of muckraking.
  12. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    It's a chilling, completely fascinating documentary.
  13. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    This is not a political documentary. It is a crime story. No matter what your politics, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room will make you mad.
  14. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    Should hold you spellbound.
  15. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    88
    Gordon Gekko didn't disappear with the 1980s; he just became a lot more difficult to pick out from a crowd.
  16. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    88
    Is a movie worthwhile if it makes you sick? Absolutely, in the case of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
  17. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    Entertaining and enraging.
  18. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    Truly a tale for our time.
  19. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    83
    Based on a best-selling book by Fortune magazine writers Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, the film approaches Enron through the Horatio Alger saga of its founder, Kenneth Lay, the son of a dirt-poor Missouri Baptist minister.
  20. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Peter Hanson
    80
    It's only by understanding what went wrong that we can hope to recognize the warning signs next time.
  21. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    80
    The most blessedly traditional sort of documentary. It follows the twisty, complicated rise and fall of Enron in steady, chronological order, from the mid-eighties to the present.
  22. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    80
    Handsomely produced and photographed, which alone distinguishes it from the guerrilla standards of its cut-rate peers, Enron succeeds most by simply making a complex situation graspable, a tall order when the perpetrators are masters of grand-scale deception.
  23. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    Soberly entertaining documentary.
  24. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    80
    A tight, fascinating chronicle of arrogance and greed.
  25. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    80
    The documentary cannot be called muckraking, as the muck has already been well-raked, but Gibney's recounting has a touch of playful sadism that I quite enjoyed.
  26. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    80
    By turns amazing, amusing and appalling.
  27. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    Gives us the same sort of perverse pleasure that's been a staple of "60 Minutes" over the years -- watching world-class crooks tell world-class lies.
    All this critic's reviews
  28. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    80
    It's a story of jaw-dropping chutzpah, grim, mostly hindsight-based humor and more stomach-churning drama than you could find in 10 screenplays.
  29. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    80
    To my taste the only serious distraction and ethical lapse is Gibney's sarcastic, cheap-shot use of popular songs like "That Old Black Magic," "Love for Sale," and "God Bless the Child" to underscore certain points; it seems almost to celebrate the shamelessness of the creeps being exposed.
  30. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    78
    Despite these biases, the movie helps the average American understand the nature of the shell games perpetuated by Enron and how "synergistic corruptions" can corrupt absolutely.
  31. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    It's scarier than "The Amityville Horror," as scandalous as "Fahrenheit 9/11" and loaded with more conspiracies than "The Interpreter."
  32. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Russell Scott Smith
    75
    The story is fascinating, infuriating and even laugh-out-loud funny at times.
  33. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    The film's most climactic moments involve the chilling audiotapes of avaricious Enron traders as they toy with California's energy crisis, wringing millions in profits from the misfortune of an entire state.
  34. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    It's a fascinating story teeming with pride, arrogance, greed and overweening hubris, and Gibney attempts to give it all an added dimension by finding the archetypes of Greek tragedy among the sleazy deals and Ponzi-scheme financing.
  35. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    70
    Well-knit, generally lucid documentary.
  36. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    63
    Surely the real story of Enron is that so many accountants, lawyers, bankers and politicians were willing to call a dog a duck in order to remain happy insiders in the world's biggest pyramid scheme.
  37. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    50
    Amid the infoglut that surrounds us, Gibney's film feels too much like more noise. Is it telling the most important business story of our lifetimes, or is it just another fantastical yarn, crammed into the schedule after Scott and Laci Peterson, but before Charlemagne and the ancient Peruvian astronauts?
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.3 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 35 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. Taylor
    2
    Interesting scandal. Horrible movie! So poorly put together.
  2. JoeP
    8
    Excellent movie, shows how greed affected the entire country and almost brought the country to its knees in the biggest corporate scandal in US history.… Full Review »
  3. BillS.
    10
    A reflection of how many CEO's have forgotton their real role...to protect their organization, their employees and stockholders...not to fill their pockets and egos.… Full Review »
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