Upon release , '' Enron : The Smartest Guys in the Room '' was met with strongly positive reviews . The film has a " Certified Fresh " rating of 97 % on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 117 reviews , with an average rating of 8.1 / 10 . The site 's consensus states : " A concise , entertaining documentary about the spectacular failure of Enron . " On Metacritic , it has a " Universal Acclaim " rating of 82 % , based on 37 reviews . Film critic Roger Ebert , writing in the '' Chicago Sun-Times '' , gave the documentary three-and-a-half out of four stars , commenting that , " 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 " . Ebert 's co-host on the television program '' Ebert & Roeper '' , '' Chicago Tribune '' critic Richard Roeper , said that the documentary was " a brilliantly executed , brutally entertaining dissection of what one observer called the greatest corporate fraud in American history . " A. O. Scott of '' The New York Times '' called the film a " sober , informative chronicle of the biggest business scandal of the decade is almost indecently entertaining . " Owen Gleiberman wrote : " A nimble investigative workout that leaves you with the exhilarated sensation of understanding the defining financial scandal of the virtual era . " The film won Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006 , but lost to '' March of the Penguins ''
78th Academy Awards
78th Academy Awards
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room