Pi Reviews

(MU) Let's put 3 stars to this sober, tight, intelligent debut of an author who later savaged his work. Here he has a good character, plot, voice in off...

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. In fact, I’m not sure which one I saw first, this movie or ‘Requiem for a Dream’. Anyway, since I’m a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky , probably one of the best directors at work nowadays, I was really eager to check this directing debut. As a matter of fact, I have noticed that this movie has received some rather mixed feedback. Indeed, either you love it or you think it is an incomprehensible mess. Personally, I do think that the whole thing tends to be a little too murky and even though it was really ambitious and often mesmerizing to behold, it was pretty obvious that it was a directing debut and it kind of lost me of a couple of times. Anyway, with this movie Aronofsky joined the selected club of directors like Christopher Nolan, David Lynch or even Kevin Smith who all had their breakthrough with a small movie made on a shoestring budget (Indeed, this movie cost only $60,000 to make, most of which was raised with contributions from the director's friends and family). To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it is still a pretty good mindf*ck and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Darren Aronofsky’s work.

Is it insanity to pursue the existence of God, or does obtaining that knowledge create the insanity? Darren Aronofsky sets up that premise, but portraying the protagonist with underlying mental health issues,and leaves just enough red herrings to have a lot of questions unanswered.

PI : Mathematics is the language of nature.

The story of the movie PI, a mathematical number involves Max Cohen, a paranoid and reclusive New York math genius, confined to his messy apartment behind a door with three locks, and who talks to his homemade supercomputer, Euclid, trying to detect a pattern in the chaos of the universe-in the digits & pi, in the rise and fall of the stock market, and in the letters of Torah. Cohen is also affected by a rare brain malaise, which causes him to have wild uncontrollable fits and hallucinations.

Well the tale is bit weired, but guess what, most of the genius behaves the odd way so did max cohen.

I can't even pretend to understand some Jewish mysticism, but I do know math and this movie still made me go "WTF?"

you will either get it love and go on about it with your mates - or hate it not get it and go on about it with your mates - either way it will make an impression - personally - i love it..

''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. 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, in order, and sometimes human error: A myriad of God, man and math. I will leave you with questions: When does genius become madness? When does a mathematician begin to become a numerologist? An obsession has good traits and bad, but how far would you go if you discovered the secret of the Universe? And if you did would you destroy that secret/discovery because this secret would be too dangerous for anyone to have?

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!)

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.