Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" is nominated for best documentary feature. The film is based on the book, The Smartest Guys in the Room.

You can listen to audio recordings of conversations between traders.

The film concludes with a note that the trial of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling begins in January 2006. Now is the time ...

For continuing coverage from the Washington Post, check out Special Report: Enron Trial

Ebert's review:

There is a general impression that Enron was a good corporation that went bad. The movie argues that it was a con game almost from the start.

The most shocking material in the film involves the fact that Enron cynically and knowingly created the phony California energy crisis. There was never a shortage of power in California. Using tape recordings of Enron traders on the phone with California power plants, the film chillingly overhears them asking plant managers to "get a little creative" in shutting down plants for "repairs." Between 30 percent and 50 percent of California's energy industry was shut down by Enron a great deal of the time, and up to 76 percent at one point, as the company drove the price of electricity higher by nine times.