Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Alex Gibney makes a lively documentary out of the similarly titled book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, detailing the worst excesses of buccaneer capitalism. The talking heads are cannily and pointedly edited, and spiced with witty visuals and music, though some of the riffs could have been excised to streamline the whole. Still, they all provide a useful public service in making the collapse of the biggest house of cards in American business history comprehensible and even entertaining, yet closer to Errol Morris than Michael Moore, dissecting the villainy more than mocking the villains, achieving a nice balance of rage and satire. Enron is a perfectly emblematic economic disaster that got buried in the rubble of 9/11, and this film makes an effective bridge to the upcoming trials of Kenny Boy and Big Jeff. With close Texas cronies in the highest of places, they’ll probably get off with a wristslap, but what an opportunity to lift the rock and look at the oil-soaked creepy-crawlies underneath. I’ve never been opposed to the death penalty philosophically, as much as I may deplore the vagaries of its execution, but just imagine the salutary deterrent effect on corporate malefactors of watching the odiose Jeffrey Skilling march to the gallows. (2005, Images, n.) *8* (MC-82, RT-97.)