Pi

Rating:
Summary: What a trip!
Review: Pi -- how to describe Pi? I've watched this film several times and I still can't quite explain the plot but that chaotic obscurity is a part of the film's power. It is not a film meant to be watched for a straight, linear story. Instead, it is a trip into the mind of an anti-social mathemitician who is convinced the world can be explained through studying the patterns of existence. While studying this in his almost Hellish apartment, he discovers the ultimate number -- the name of God in mathematical terms. Its a discovery that finds him pursued by by both men of greed (an overly aggresive Wall Street firm) and God (a group of Kabbalists). Shot on a miniscule budget in grainy black-and-white, the film is an outstanding portrait of paranoia and how one can actually theorize himself out of existence. Its a film that shakes you up, that leaves you feeling like you've been up for five days straight on speed. After watching this film, I've never been able to look at swirling sweetner in black coffee or tendrils of cigarette smoke twisting into the sky quite the same way again. Not quite the masterpiece as the director's next film, the more cohesive Requiem for a Dream, Pi is still an amazing experiment that sticks with you a lot longer than you might want.

Rating:
Summary: No man's Pi is freed from his ambitious finger*
Review: "Pi" is a tough film to pin down. Some people go in looking for a complex dissertation on number theory, an explanation of the magic code that will explain the universe, and the true name of God. I think this tact is a mistake. Sure, all of these elements and questions are here, but they're not meant to be taken seriously. Director/writer Darren Aronofsky and writer/star Sean Gullette have distracted their audience with a nifty little McGuffin (Hitchcock's term for a device or plot element that drives the movie forward, but is inconsequential enough to be discarded after it's done its job). The movie is not about the 216-digit number that Max accidentally stumbles across, and is nearly killed for. What we're really watching is a portrayal of obsession. What happens when one man puts on his blinders, plunges forth into the abyss, and nearly destroys himself in the process?

I'm not going to tell you what happens, but I will tell you this: it ain't pretty. Much of the stuff here is pretty gruesome. Gullette looks every bit the tortured math genius: wild hair, constant 5 o'clock shadow, empty eyes, hunched posture, pale skin, bony fingers. He begins the film as a tortured loner, and proceeds to descend from there into a state of self-imposed madness. It is gradual, but palpable. Gullette does a fine job detailing Max, showing his angst and torment quite clearly. I would have liked, however, if he gave Max some humanity by also giving him some humour. Thankfully there is some humour injected into this otherwise dark tale in other places. Max is repeatedly confronted by what can only be described as a hip-hop Kabalist. The character of Lenny Meyer adds some much-needed levity to the film. He torments Max in coffee shops and on the street with his motormouth ramblings about how number theory intersects with the Kaballah. Max, for his part, looks on with bemused frustration, further portraying his difficulty when dealing with actual people.

Aronofsky, who is a proficient visual stylist, gets his first chance to shine here. Techniques that he would later expand and abuse in the engrossing but ponderous "Requiem for a Dream" make their first appearances in this lower budget effort. One particularly stylish device uses manic quick cuts to portray the rhythm and the ritual of Max taking his headache medicine. It was overbearing when used in "Requiem", but fits in nicely here. It is repeated over and over, a technique Aronofsky also likes to employ with his dialogue. There is one story that opens the film, about how when Max was a little boy he forced himself to stare into the sun, which pops up from time to time. We don't understand the implications of this story right away (apparently it is the cause of Max's migraines), but after hearing it several times, and living with Max in his own personal hell, it becomes more potent.

I usually not go for movies that double as surrealistic mood pieces, and judging from the other reviews here I wouldn't enjoy David Lynch's "Eraserhead". But "Pi" has a couple of my favourite cinema motifs: obsession, loneliness, and genius. Throw in a healthy dose of mathematical theory (but not too much) and the remnants of a thriller plot and you've got a movie that dares to engage both your mind and your senses.

[*Shakespeare's "Henry VIII", 1.1.62-3]

Rating:
Summary: Nice... but...
Review: Beautifully shot, and well acted. The problem is in the screenplay. Lots of great ideas are trown away randomly, yes this might look stylish and intellectual but it makes the movie lose it's point. Still, watch it, lots of people won't be turned off by this...

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: This movie is shear genius! Aaronofsky will be remembered forever for this classic. I won't go into the story because anyone who reads this will buy without question. In the history of film there are only a handful that stand out at as landmarks in creation. The "still cam" that is used will be seen often in the future. (Already, Ritchie uses it). The feelings that come over you during the viewing take you into the mind of Max. You feel crazy! Good Job.

Rating:
Summary: Pie
Review: Pie is my favorite movie. It is the most overrated piece of claptrap monoganism that we are likely to see; thus, I love it sooo much. Its so cool, like that one part, where that guy, like goes into a hole, and he's like "Grr! I'm Mr Grumpy Pants! Grr!" and he like gets this headache and stuff. It's so awful. In short, u should all see Pie because its so kewl.

Rating:
Summary: Maths for dummies......
Review: To be perfectly honest, this is rather a review for the Pi that was playing in theatres, as it is unavailable on DVD in our cozy little island dwelling. Straight to the point, however, I really don't understand how this movie, in anyone's right mind, would qualify for a one? Possibly 3, if you aren't into art-house movies, but Pi's strongest aspect is simply how original it is, motioning away from conventional hollywood, particularly reinforced by the use of black and white in compilation with some rather amazing cinematography, which as a result allows the audience a glimpse of Max's total paranoia, regardless of whether you've memorized Pi to 180 digits..or not. And, true to all really effective films, we're left to fill in the gaps, and form our own interpretation regarding the possibility of a link between the stockmarket, mathematics and religion*

Rating:
Summary: A near miss
Review: There are many things to love about this movie - an intense examination of the struggle with madness -or is it genius? A dark, disturbing look at a not-quite-real world, filled with people who somehow know of the quest to find order in chaos. A brilliant depiction of a black and white, strange world.

Overall, a pleasant movie that intrigues, but never quite fulfills the promise of a truly unique world. The point to it all? Perhaps the self-induced torture of a man not quite up to discovering the numerical secret of the universe.

Rating:
Summary: Get a Piece
Review: 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.)

Rating:
Summary: Pi and it's 'mathematical' jargon
Review: I saw Pi for the first time about a month or so ago. It is turly one of the most brilliant and original movies of all time. It is like nothing else I have heard of or seen. Though I'm not a math thinker and my skills lie more in the aesthetic quality of movies and art, I didn't find the math jargon too distracting or too confusing. Though I didn't understand every little thing that was going on, the mystery was beautifully depicted and easy to follow. I suggest it to all who read this or hear of the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: Pi, director Darren Aronofsky's first feature film, is about an obsessed mathematician, Maximilian Cohen (Sean Gullette), and his search for a numerical code that is supposed to predict the stock market.

This film is not for everyone. Usually, when I begin a review with these words, glowing praise will follow. Not this time. This film is not for everyone--in fact it is only for people who see depth where there isn't any. Pi is not a deep, thought-provoking film. It won't cause you to re-think humanity or anything, unless you happen to be on drugs while watching. It's basically about a guy who has constant muscle spasms and shouts "NO!!" over and over.

As a drama, this movie fails. As hard sci-fi, it's laughable, but as a dark comedy, it has some potential. Gullette's performance of an obsessive techie-type is supposed to be intense and philosophical. As an obsessive techie-type myself, I find his performance to be more like a sarcastic in-joke: as if he's saying, "Look how ridiculous you nerds can be!" If you can get past the unresearched pseudo-math and the repetative narration, you'll start to see a film that laughs at science--and scientists who think they can sum the universe up with a few formulas.

Sadly I don't think comedy was Aronofsky's intent. We viewers are actually supposed to find deep meaning in Pi. Unfortunately, it takes more than a depiction of inner-turmoil to make a compelling drama.

For a $600,000 production, Pi is well done. Its musical score is edgy and creative, and the film is shot cleverly--not over-artsy. The DVD has a lot of extras, putting many big-budget films to shame.

Rating: *

Over-acted science fiction that's not grounded in real science.