by SARAH ROWLAND

Where The Corporation is an eerie lesson in economics 101, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a terrifying cautionary tale that could even make card-carrying neo-liberals think twice about deregulation.

Based on Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind’s best-selling book, director Alex Gibney chronicles the rise and fall of what was once the seventh largest company in the States.

Actor Peter Coyote narrates, but the real stars of this riveting documentary are former Enron Chairman Ken Lay (or “Kenny Boy,” as the Bushes so affectionately refer to him) and his partner, CEO Jeff Skilling. Together these poster boys for corporate greed put billions of dollars in their own pockets and those of their top execs, while screwing millions out of their employees and investors. But perhaps their coup d’état was orchestrating California’s “energy crisis” in order to jack up the stock value of Enron’s West Coast power company.

But before Gibney gets into any of that, he starts by showing some of the victims left in Enron’s wake, most notably Clifford Baxter, the former vice chairman who shot himself shortly after the company filed for bankruptcy. During this re-enactment Billy Holiday coos “money, you’ve got lots of friends” in the background; Gibney wisely slows the pace down so that the Wall Street illiterates can get their minds around terms like mark-to-market accounting. But that doesn’t mean this in-depth look at one of the greatest business scandals in U.S. history is boring—far from it.

In fact, Skilling and Lay’s avarice is so endless and far-reaching that you may find yourself laughing in disbelief, especially in scenes where we hear taped phone conversations between renegade Enron traders as they gleefully shut down California’s power. They choose sectors to black out like they’re picking which shoes to wear with their Armani suits. “Oh man, we’re gonna retire before we’re 30,” the anonymous voices snicker. Meanwhile, Gibney rolls footage of Cali seniors protesting because they can’t pay their hydro bill. Sadly, the only thing their cries for de-privatization lead to is a recall election— where we see the Terminator shaking hands, kissing babies and playing guitar. Scary, scary stuff.

ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM OPENS AT CINÉMA DU PARC FRIDAY, MAY 6

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