Pi (1998)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Rubia Carolina .

  
  <br/> "Pi" starts with an hyperactive song and opening intro (why it did remind me of <i>Run Lola Run</i>?). A disturbed mind, a math genius, the number Pi as the key to the universe. Drastic camera angles and contrast lighting; the chaos. I´ve always… More
  <br/> "Pi" starts with an hyperactive song and opening intro (why it did remind me of <i>Run Lola Run</i>?). A disturbed mind, a math genius, the number Pi as the key to the universe. Drastic camera angles and contrast lighting; the chaos. I´ve always liked mathematics. Once you really learn it, going beyond memorized formulas, it becomes fascinating, but more than mathematics I´ve always been amazed by minds. If it was possible, I would definitely buy a trip to a genius´one. A genius´one. Between Max Cohen and Robert Llewelyn (from John Madden´s <i>Proof</i>), I would still pick out Robert´s insanity. After watching "Pi", the promising embryo, I´m sure that none of the trips to Aronofsky´s mind worths its price. Take off the astonished soundtrack and chaotically beautiful black-an-white photography and you have nothing. Nothing but the lost promise of "geniality", as it happens with his last work <i>Black Swan</i>. Like Rob Nelson said in his review that <i>Pi is about nothing but its ambition - the tale of an obsessive math genius who finds clues to the universe everywhere he looks, told by an indie filmmaker who's convinced that every point-of-view shot signifies something really deep</i>. <br/> <br/>

• Melvin W

  
  Maximillian Cohen: When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did...  "There will be no order, only chaos." Darren Aronofsky is easily one of the most interesting directors making movies right now. Pi was his debut, and an… More
  Maximillian Cohen: When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did...  "There will be no order, only chaos." Darren Aronofsky is easily one of the most interesting directors making movies right now. Pi was his debut, and an amazing one at that. It's a bizarre film, like you'd expect from Aronofsky if you've seen any of his later works. Pi includes many signatures that he would go on to use for many of his films. Pi is definitely his most interesting film, but not his best. It's shot in gritty black and white, it's short, and it's crazy. It's a mind fuck of a film, and for some will seem boring and maybe a little too crazy.  I don't want to go into plot details because I don't think it is really necessary. If I explained the plot in great detail it would just confuse you and me in the process. It seems a lot simpler when you just watch it, instead of read about it. Just know there are many slow moments and periods, where if you are bored easily, you could become detached from the film. In many ways Aronofsky's debut feels a lot like Nolan's debut, Following. Their both extremely short and are shot in black in white. But they both also have a feeling of independence from rational filmmaking. They seem like they just want to do their own thing and don't care about the normal way a story is told. Both also debut and show off the director's talents and begin to give us an idea as to how talented they are, even before they hit their true strides. I've now seen every film Aronofsky has made. It's weird that I waited to watch his very first until last, but sometimes that's how it goes. I think in regards to favorites of his, this falls below Requiem For a Dream, Black Swan, and The Wrestler. It's a film that is at times hard to watch, but when it is at it's best it is amazing, and despite the fact that I like some of his other movies more, I would still say this his most important and most interesting. So much is shown off that he would use later on in other movies. The bizarreness of some of the character's encounters feels so much like Black Swan. The way he shows the characters routines in sped up form is exactly the same way he showed them in Requiem For a Dream. There's just so much as an Aronofsky fan that you can trace back to here, that makes the experience even more rewarding.

• Jameson W

  
  Good film!...

• Cameron S

  
  Boggling. If you are able to understand all of 'Pi' you must be some kind of genius. Aronofsky's debut is an experimental foray into the mind of a genius and one that definetely leaves you feeling like you've gone as mental as the protaginist. Thiller codes and… More
  Boggling. If you are able to understand all of 'Pi' you must be some kind of genius. Aronofsky's debut is an experimental foray into the mind of a genius and one that definetely leaves you feeling like you've gone as mental as the protaginist. Thiller codes and conventions meet mathematics in order to create something new and a pleasent change from lt of films around today. It definetely has a few annoying moments but it's outlandishness makes up for them. Give it a watch if you feel like something a bit different. God, I hate maths.

• paul o

  
  Its psycho mathematics! This film examines the aggressive and irrational side to the stock market along with crazy hallucinations! Aronofsky's first film makes a great debut!

• xGary X

  
  The worlds of religion and big business clash over the talents of a mathematics prodigy who becomes obsessed with finding a formula that can explain the underlying pattern of existence. Pi was Darren Aronofsky's debut film and is an experimental little affair that reminded me in… More
  The worlds of religion and big business clash over the talents of a mathematics prodigy who becomes obsessed with finding a formula that can explain the underlying pattern of existence. Pi was Darren Aronofsky's debut film and is an experimental little affair that reminded me in a lot of ways of David Lynch's Eraserhead. It has the same grainy, black and white photography and surreal, almost nightmarish quality. It contains a lot of theoretical sounding scientific jargon, but to me it felt a bit more like new age hoodoo than genuine science making it far from the profound experience I was expecting. It's certainly an interesting film with some effective imagery and quality performances and shows the potential Aronofsky possessed in the field of film making. More a taster than a complete package that's a little pretentious but brief enough to not test the patience. I doubt I'll have any desire to sit through it again though.

• Adriel L

  
  Ignorance is bliss, is it what it's all about? I thought to myself. Then I realize that we fail to see the bigger picture when we focus beyond regular means and become obsessive on the way. The visual was not particularly likable, but then again, this is an indie film, and the… More
  Ignorance is bliss, is it what it's all about? I thought to myself. Then I realize that we fail to see the bigger picture when we focus beyond regular means and become obsessive on the way. The visual was not particularly likable, but then again, this is an indie film, and the unique visual style worked to deliver a bizarre, macabre atmosphere reminiscent of Kubrick films. At times disgustingly suspenseful then profoundly beautiful, it is a success.

• Spencer S

  
  In a year that gave us The Matrix, Pi uses the same elements and makes a broader and more intellectual film. One of Aronofsky's early efforts, Pi uses the concept of mathematical prevalence in mapping the human existence. Aided by a group of Jews looking through the Torah, and a… More
  In a year that gave us The Matrix, Pi uses the same elements and makes a broader and more intellectual film. One of Aronofsky's early efforts, Pi uses the concept of mathematical prevalence in mapping the human existence. Aided by a group of Jews looking through the Torah, and a large scale agency (stays unnamed) which is looking to steal a 216 digit number that will unlock the key to all civilization and unearth the patterns that exist in the world at large. Driving himself utterly insane is the protaganist Max, a mathematician locked away in his lab of an apartment, treking across town to receive sage advice from his mentor, and the man who mapped Pi, Sol. He starts hallucinating, becoming enraptured in finding this bogus, thrown away number that everyone is trying to kill him to retrieve. The lucidity of his life is edged out by his obsession, resulting in a very demented character study, but also an intricate mind-bender.

• Richard C

  
  A very complex and original movie. I really liked it. I didn't get a lot of the movie but I think that's the point. The movie really makes you think. Max is crazy and he's trying to find a pattern with math. If he can find this pattern then he thinks he can understand… More
  A very complex and original movie. I really liked it. I didn't get a lot of the movie but I think that's the point. The movie really makes you think. Max is crazy and he's trying to find a pattern with math. If he can find this pattern then he thinks he can understand and predict everything like the stockmarket but also some bigger things like life or even god. This pattern probably doesn't exist but it might and Max thinks he close to finding it. A brilliant movie. Grade: B+

• Wahida K

  
  faith in chaos

• Greg S

  
  A reclusive mathematics genius suffering from crippling migraines is on the brink of discovering a mystical number sequence sought after by a multinational corporation and a sect of Kabbalahists. The script wanders into an apocalyptic corner that it can't write it's way… More
  A reclusive mathematics genius suffering from crippling migraines is on the brink of discovering a mystical number sequence sought after by a multinational corporation and a sect of Kabbalahists. The script wanders into an apocalyptic corner that it can't write it's way out of, but the film gets a ton of style points for the beautifully grainy, high-contrast black and white cinematography and the pulsing electronica soundtrack.

• Anthony L

  
  Darren Aronofsky's low budget debut is a brilliant gritty drama of one mans downward spiral into complete madness through number crunching. It's really much better than it sounds, although I watched it with my dad and he thought it was nuts (I'm pretty sure he liked it… More
  Darren Aronofsky's low budget debut is a brilliant gritty drama of one mans downward spiral into complete madness through number crunching. It's really much better than it sounds, although I watched it with my dad and he thought it was nuts (I'm pretty sure he liked it though)

• Lanning :

  
  It's death, Max . . . <p> A dynamite idea -- Aronofsky is good at that. But between the idea and the execution, something happens, and it's not a really good something. <p>First off, I want to give high praise to Sean Gullette for one very intense, highly… More
  It's death, Max . . . <p> A dynamite idea -- Aronofsky is good at that. But between the idea and the execution, something happens, and it's not a really good something. <p>First off, I want to give high praise to Sean Gullette for one very intense, highly believable acting job. Playing someone this obsessed so precisely for any good length of time is most commendable. To sustain this kind of intensity for an hour and a half, he obviously has the right stuff. But what kills me, not just with this movie, but with actors who burn brightly in any insignificant project, is that they just might burn themselves out for nothing. There's a lot to be said for saving yourself for good scripts. For me, there's a big difference between what is "complex" and what is just plain "confused." I hope Gullette gets better chances.<p>I can't help but think what Ron Howard might have done with this idea. It's the problem of substituting flash for substance. Howard can manage that on the substantive end. Aronofsky has to work on that. Convolution. That's all I can think of. Not faith in chaos -- faith in convolution. That's not theory. That's truly pure faith. <p>The first star is for Gullette; the second star is for Aronofsky's potential.

• Aaron N

  
  Maximillian Cohen: 11:15, restate my assumptions: 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. A trippy… More
  Maximillian Cohen: 11:15, restate my assumptions: 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. A trippy thriller from director Darren Aronofsky, who somehow combines math, Jews, and evil Wall Street goons into one crazy film. The story involves a mathematically obsessed and paranoid individual who both is a genius and has problems being himself. Describing the rest of the plot is unnecessary, except for the part involving the man's stumbling across a large digit bug in his computer system. Maximillian Cohen: Studying the pattern made Euclid conscious of itself. I had to... Before it died it spit out the number. That consciousness is the number? Sol Robeson: No, Max. It's only a nasty bug. Maximillian Cohen: It's more than that, Sol. Sol Robeson: No, it's not. It's a dead end. There's nothing there. Maximillian Cohen: It's a door, Sol. It's a door. Sol Robeson: A door at the front of a cliff. You're driving yourself over the edge. Made super cheap, the movie certainly works with its gritty style to produce a unique film. Obviously one that will polarize audiences who want to get into it and who just don't. Watching this film reminded me of David Lynch's Eraserhead, a cult film that I wasn't a fan of, but certainly shows its influence here, as well as the very lame Jim Carrey thriller, The Number 23, with its dealings with obsession over the relation of mathematical properties with life. I mention this, I guess, because it shows a particular theme involving obsession, which works as a good drive to make what are at least good ideas for films. The lead performance is strong and the direction is solid. It also has a surprisingly energetic soundtrack that worked well into the film. Maximillian Cohen: 9:22, Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood.

• Lenny M

  
  Mindfreak! Good intro film.

• Alice S

  
  First fifteen minutes were pretty neat, stylistically and thematically, but by the end, you realize Pi is merely a McGuffin (ala Hitchcock) and there really is no mystery about the stock market, or the Kabbalah, or even mathematics, to solve and no payoff for "solving" it.… More
  First fifteen minutes were pretty neat, stylistically and thematically, but by the end, you realize Pi is merely a McGuffin (ala Hitchcock) and there really is no mystery about the stock market, or the Kabbalah, or even mathematics, to solve and no payoff for "solving" it. Just number games borne of coincidence. The subtle intricacies of math make you feel like it's a smart film, but it doesn't bring any point or proof to back it up.

• Dan S

  
  While I'm no fan of the subject of mathematics, I really liked this movie. Sean Guillette, an unheard of actor, is brilliant here as a social inept mathematician struggling to keep his sanity. The ending is shocking and the story is told so well that even if you don't care… More
  While I'm no fan of the subject of mathematics, I really liked this movie. Sean Guillette, an unheard of actor, is brilliant here as a social inept mathematician struggling to keep his sanity. The ending is shocking and the story is told so well that even if you don't care for math that much, you'll at least respect this movie.

• Ken S

  
  My brain hurts

• Pierluigi P

  
  90s landmark, granulated black & white sci-fi/metaphysical low budget little gem, debtor of the nightmarish, irrational and paranoid mise-en-scene of Eraserhead and The Process.

• Tsubaki S

  
  So so...

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