Pi
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Movie Reviews of Pi
Movie Review: Numbers, Patterns, and Chaos
Summary: 5 Stars
"Pi" is an outstanding and complex thriller with brains and structure. For such a low budget film, this great movie shows you that greatness doesn't have to only come out of big budget films with well-known stars. It is a film that gets in your head and stays with you long after it is over.This dark and quiet thriller is about Maximilian Cohen, a brilliant mathematician who believes that everything in life revolves around patterns and numbers. For years he has been trying to find this pattern that could unlock everything we see and know. He starts with the stock market, the ultimate system of ordered chaos. The deeper he digs, the more insane he becomes. And the more he finds out, the more danger he is thrown into. The pattern itself proves to be just as deadly as the people who are after him. The twists and complexity will leave you in awe.
While this movie may be confusing at times, it still does its job and keeps us intrigued throughout the duration of the film. The acting and writing is really remarkable. Sean Gullette is very convincing as Max. I don't think there is anybody else who could've gotten the job done. Everybody else was also great in it as well. The film is also a debut from Darren Aronofsky; and a powerful one at that. Very well written and directed. Some of the camera techniques are really great and allow you to get inside of the main character's head.
The DVD is great as well. The picture quality is really good, considering it is a black and white film. (The black and white actually enriches the film more. It would've been less effective in color.) The sound is really great too. Some of the extras are 2 commentary tracks, a behind the scenes montage, lost scenes, trailers, a music video, and more. Very satisfactory.
"Pi" is a movie that requires you to think throughout the film and after. It's a film that will mostly appeal to those who like quiet and unique thrillers. There's no non-stop shootings or explosions in this movie. And it's not a film that everyone is going to like. However, seeing that the movie is only 85 minutes long, why not give it a shot? If you want something new and different, "Pi" is the film for you. A very outstanding picture.
Movie Review: Almost perfect.
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't read this if you haven't seen the movie!
It took me more than a dozen views to start figuring out how everything was connected. What's with the bugs? What's that stickey stuff in his mainfraim? How are his breakdowns and paranoia connected to his work, and what is the quite white place he ends up in? All the weird stuff is chaos slipping in between the seams, chaos which he thinks he's fighting against... at first. Max had a thread of a connection to the great infinite divine, that which human beings are not wired to see. He does see it though, glimpses at first, then the whole thing. It almost kills him. It's the classic Iccarus story, except that Max survives and finds happiness at the end. I disagree that the end is a 'cop out' or incongruous-- it is the cumulation of every frame of the film... it is the point! He looks at the leaves blowing in the trees, *doesn't* see a pattern, can't see a pattern, doesn't want to see a pattern-- and, for the very first time, he smiles.
Why isn't it perfect? I would have like to see more actual math. The concepts are there, but the details aren't. Not a big deal. "A Beautiful Mind" put a lot of effort into putting real math into the plot, and I like that.
Also, some of the details didn't connect. For example, the 'name of god' (216-letters long), and the 216-digit number his computer spits out before dying, wouldn't necessarily be connected. The system they explained indicated that different numbers of integers would represent a single letter in Hebrew. Like 42 would be a letter, and 2 would be different letter. So, the number of digits wouldn't really equal the number of letters... Darren kind of painted himself into a corner there. He wisely chose not to make the punch line of the movie a complex number theory proof, and I didn't even notice (much less become annoyed about) this detail until viewing #15. Up until then, every time I saw it something different would finally make sense.
Thus, five stars. I'm inclined to give five stars to any movie that makes me think longer than the credits roll, so this one should get many many more.
Movie Review: Get a Piece
Summary: 5 Stars
This film has been compared to Lynch's Eraserhead, but it's not a good comparison (beyond the fact that both are excellent small budget B&W movies with dream sequences). This film is far more cohesive and straightforward and grounded in reality, although the main character apparently becomes increasingly neurotic as the film progresses.Basically it is about a respected young mathematician with the social skills of your average hermit trying to develope a method of predicting the stock market on his homemade computer. Meanwhile an evil group (brokerage company, CIA, whatever ... their identity is not really revealed) keeps him under surveillance and tries to get him to make a Faustian deal to reveal any formula he developes to them. Eventually he reaches a breakthrough when he becomes interested in the mystical Jewish philosophy of Kabbalah and finds parallels between it and mathematical theory. As a result his understanding of math becomes increasingly philosophical, and he begins to note patterns in everything, learns how to predict the market and winds up being pursued by the unidentified group as well as zealous Kabbalists who all want to use him. He also, perhaps, winds up learning to communicate with God (or else he goes insane)(or both). This last bit of confusion is not because the movie is confusing, but because it cleverly leaves some events open to several equally supportable interpretations.
Don't worry if you're not really into math or the Kabbalah, Pi is still very entertaining. It has excellent acting and great photography (despite the obviously low budget). But if you are into such things, the movie also does manage to make excellent parallels between theoretical mathematics and Kabbalah (however you want to spell it) while presenting both accurately, and is mind expanding and thought provoking. Pi reflects an increasingly strong trend amongst theorists of finding parallels between pure science and mysticism (e.g. quantum physics and zen buddhism) whatever significance you might want to read into that. My only problem with the movie is its title: the concept of Pi is not actually discussed! (At least not directly.)
Movie Review: Mathematics collides with Religion in Medium
Summary: 5 Stars
From the trailers I knew this film had something that no other 'alternative' film had, namely: a complete vision. Not one of just a good story, cool ideas, nice visuals, but was well aware of the music and 'colors' and symmetry. Darren Aronofsky's debut film 'Pi,' based on the Greek letter and mathematical formula is a superb look into a genius' nightmare. Can we really call him genius? Perhaps, perhaps not, but he was teetering on insanity. If one is insane, I would hesitate to label genius on that person (more pressure). Although it looked at the religious aspect of numbers, it more specifically was about the Kabbalah in which, like the Greek letter system, the letters pertained to numbers. The Rabbis were, here, attempting to translate the Torah into numbers to attain the "true knowledge", and then chasing our wizard around town. Likewise a powerful corporation is chasing him around with superduper high speed chips for his (commodore 64?) computer to punch out numbers faster in return of his work. Although I found the math part exciting, from Pythagoras to Archimedes and so on, they were small integrals to move the drama forward. What mattered mostly was the internal world of our friendly genius. A unique resolution to low budget film making it as stated "When I was 6 years old, my mother told me not to look into the sun." He did! Everything went black, then white, then he regained his vision. But he could only see the world in black and white!! This is the key element in why he enjoys numbers because there are no grey areas (and!!) that the film is shown through his eyes, in black and white. Wonderful!!! What more can a film have? I regard this film as influential with a highly electrical soundtrack that pulsates with every frame that is (almost)rythmically matched to the intensity your heart will race as things rush on. Marvelously composed, this film is like a math formula that wants to be deciphered and is fun figuring it out. Highly reccomended!!Movie Review: One of the best DVD values out there
Summary: 5 Stars
If you want to see a movie that is at once smart and utterly unique you can't do better than Pi. The film is well described in the Amazon editorial review. Beyond the actual story which takes you to strange dark places in the mind and asks all the right questions about Max's obsession. The film is a visual and aural delight as it stimulates areas of your brain you didn't know you had to enjoy. You find yourself looking forward to listening to the rythmn of Max opening his battalion of deadbolt and chain locks that still don't quite manage to protect him from the assault of the outside world. And like David Aranofsky's more recent film, Requiem for a Dream, the unique camera devices he constructed add to the films magnificent sense of claustrophobia by placing the camera in places that violate your comfort space. Pi can give you that uneasy feel you might have if a vagrant was standing just a little too close to you in the grocery line. I watched this film my second time with a friend who told me afterward that "had he seen it when it first came out, it would have been his favorite film of the year." Thinking very few people have seen this film, I have since discovered word has gotten out on it. I am surprised at how many people have seen it and enjoy recommending it. I picked it up brand new from a major retail book chain [....] Not only do you get a great film, the DVD includes two good commentary tracks. One from the director Aranofsky and the other from the actors. Also included are some really interesting behind the scenes segments showing how some of the unique camera work was accomplished. And there is more. Rent if you must but at this price you should just buy it. It must be one of the best DVD values out there. You will definitely earn some cool points with the already initiated once you reveal you have seen the film. And its a great film to have in your DVD collection for the friend who doesn't want to watch a video because they think they have seen them all.