Reviews of Pi (π)

Pi

Posted : 3 months, 1 week ago on 26 August 2008 04:35 (A review of Pi (π))

''There will be no order, only chaos.''

A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
Faith in Chaos.

Sean Gullette: Maximillian Cohen

Max is a mathematician who tries to find the perfect number/equation to life, to everything. Upon finding it, people will do anything to get what he knows.

Beautiful sounds and music, fantastic camera work are a few aspects Pi has to offer. The whole flashes, views through keyholes, the ants, the black and white filming intensifies the ordeal that is Pi.

I liked the Jewish lettering and numbering system. Was especially fascinating with some awe defining comparisons and links to certain symbolic aspects within the Torah.

Darren Aronofsky has crafted a superb, psychological, analytical movie that spirals out of control to dizzying heights. Paranoia and madness soaked.
Sean Gullette portrays Max in such a believable fashion. Incredible.

Very meaningful quotes for instance, the following examples:
''When i was a little boy my mother told me not to stare into the sun.
So once when i was six i did''.

''1. Mathematics is the language of nature.
2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.
3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: there are patterns everywhere in nature.''

Pi is perfected in it's capturing of numbers and the mixture of faith and religion. Even in religions and nature numbers are in everything, which begs the idea that God, the big everything, or whatever you believe, patterns are in everything, reflecting how numbers are everywhere.Some interesting ambient music from some surreal groups too like Aphex Twin, orbital, Ront Size, Massive attack, David Holmes, Autechre and Clint Mansell.

The whole film is surreal,beautiful and shot so differently yet originally. Reminds me of the Silent Hill video games on parts the way it messes with your head and stretches your fear of the unknown. Also is similar to Taxi-driver how its main guy seems to plummet and be consumed by craziness and chaos. How you get to the stage where you snap and there's no going back.
What begins as an obsession to beat the stock market slowly transcends into something altogether higher and pivotal yet dangerous.

Watch immediately if you are into deep films because Pi certainly is near the top of the pile.
Darren Aronofsky, I see what he's trying to achieve here. In all his films. Has to be watched again and again to take into account all it's deeper messages and meanings.
Simply Amazing, spirals into perfection and infinity like it's chaotic numeric, faithful subject matter.

Faith is indeed in chaos, a myriad of God, man and math.

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Pretentious and Pyschodelic

Posted : 1 year ago on 11 November 2007 06:45 (A review of Pi (π))

Pi is the story of a man with a possible mental illness and his obsession with numbers and some serious paranoia and hallucinations. First, it's filmed in black and white, and I tend to find that annoying. It's a cheap way of standing out without displaying any substance. From then on the movie is an film school project. The story is basic and overdone. The film is all about film techniques and not about the story or the acting. Good soundtrack. This tends to be a movie people either love or think is stupid. I am of the latter (my husband is of the former, don't tell him I didn't like it!)

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and the point is....??!?!

Posted : 1 year ago on 5 November 2007 09:39 (A review of Pi (π))

Maximilian Cohen, a mathematician, believes there are patterns everywhere in nature. Because of his studies and research in which he tries to predict the behavior of the stock market, he is chased by a Wall Street company, and by an orthodox Jew follower of the Torah, who believes that these numbers are sent by God.

I can't say the performances impressed me, nor did the directing.
Maybe I'd just heard so much about the film that in the end, it disappointed me because I had much higher expectations?! Who knows!
I didn't and still do not see the point in making such a pseudo-intellectual film, which left me unsatisfied and disappointed.


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Pi (π) review

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 20 April 2007 04:17 (A review of Pi (π))

I never really understood all the fuss about this film. On the one hand I thought it had a lot of things going for it, such as a stunning soundtrack by the extremely talented Clint Mansell (as well as some Autechre to boot) and some top drawer acting, particularly from Sean Gullette. His representation of the troubled genius was nothing short of magnificent. It's a shame he gets such a small role in Requiem for a Dream...

However, at the same time I failed to see the point of this film. I understand the comment about how we find patterns in everything and get hooked on them, but I don't think that was one of the major themes. Towards the end of the film we witness a scene that suggests he might even have met with God? Who knows. Not me.

At the end of the film I just didn't really feel any sort of empathy or emotion. It just ended.

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