Pi

Rating:
Summary: Low budget, high satisfaction
Review: Ah, forget that the idea that the stock market couldn't possibly be predicted by pattern unless you knew what every single solitary buyer and seller was doing at that very moment that you decided to measure. Then it'd just change again a second later as new traders enter the system. That's just what this movie purports Euclid the computer can do though, and its brilliant, self medicating schizoid programmer Max stumbles on the pattern which incidentally happens to be the numeric representation for the building blocks of all matter. This quest brings him to the attention of sinister inside traders and Hasidic Kabbalists who know the pattern to be the true name of God. Max desperately tries to keep his secrets to himself, but if the traders and the Kabbalists don't get him, the sheer power of the knowledge sure does, and decides it is best not to know at all. The bleachy, grainy black and white does much to accentuate the torment Max is enduring to find and keep his secret and his sanity. Very Eraserhead-like. Great movie concepts-a bit mishandled, but Kabalists, chaos theory, and drug abuse in one film? Neophyte cyberpunks should love this stuff.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Film On A Astonishing Budget
Review: $60,000. That's not most film industry grunt's pay. To make a film on this kind of budget is incredible. To make a good film and create some charater to the look and sound is amazing. I take exception with the main review's sound and film quality scores of 2 out of 5. The quality of the film is grainy and the music is brash along with dark ambient washes of sound.

While not breathtaking in terms of technology their effectiveness is central to the film. The other critical remark that really puzzled me regarded how accurate the mathematic models were and thus the film was poor.

Let's step back. We aren't watching the story of applied mathematics with a $6 million dollar budget, we are watching a deeply personal work that exploits it's budgetary compromises.

The 16mm format is grainy and frequently overlight, we follow a genius who is searching, or perhaps tormented, by the hypothesis that all life can be broken down to a mathematical formula.

Sean Gullette's character Max is hounded by a Wall Street parasite and Hassidic Jews, both interested in his work for different reasons. His one friend, an old professor and seeming mentor is his one place where he can unwind but even that gets poisoned as the film progresses and results in tragedy.

Max stared into the sun against his mother's advice as a child. After regaining lost sight he experiences headaches which as the film progresses are discussed and happen off camera but build in intensity and are visualized as torment.

Nothing is as it seems in this mildly science fiction like film and in the end the resolution is as extreme and personal as the build.

Pi is a difficult movie to explain, the film has a lot of interesting shots and visualizations of what Max is going through, much of it representational rather than the typical hollywood film that would smack you over the head with exactly what is happening because you are too stupid to figure it out from the story. Think the last scene of Minority Report which guts an otherwise good film.

See Pi for the multilayered performances, philosophies and craft that went into this film. The person that transferred the graphic on the DVD probably made more money than Pi cost to make. That impresses me but it's Darren Aronofsky's at times impressionistic, sometimes surreal approach that combines with good acting to make for a terrific film - at any cost.

Rating:
Summary: "Pi" is the journey of a mind
Review: The movie "Pi" is the journey of a mind on a quest, one that is a naturally driven human endeavor to find those secrets of life's many meanings. "Pi" seems to have a pre-requisite need of a 150 IQ to be fully understood tho. The depth of looking for those subtle patterns in nature, can be disruptive to the psychological-dynamics of the working mind. The grainy black and white texture of the movie is not meant as a pretentiously artistic display, but meant to represent the hazy process of an obsessively focused mind working on a resolution. "Pi" is the all-encompassing and all-consuming mental state of 'Tripped Breakers', one that sits on the edge of salvation and/or insanity. In other words; A true "Twilight Zone" state of mental consciousness.

If you have ever pondered on a topic that does not fit the ability of the minds capacity to understand, then you know what happens when the mind trips its breakers. The subject of a God, that always was and always will be, is a good topic to attain this state of tripped breakers. Just try to ponder on the possibility of a life force, that had no beginning or birth which will extend into infinity or will never die. Such an ad infinitum going in two directions at the same time is not a concept that can be rationalized by the finite abilities of the human mind.

You may believe in a God with no beginning or no end, but rationalizing it is another thing. Sean Gullette who plays Max Cohen, has an intuitive understanding that a pattern to the mathematical equation of Pi exists, a pattern which will explain many of the mysteries of life itself. Director Darren Aronofsky gets a triple-kudos for an excellent job of weaving this journey together with those subtle paranoias, that accompany such a mental state as 'Tripped Breakers'.

Rating: triple-kudos

Rating:
Summary: Tortuous but Beautiful
Review: Pi was a cinematic masterpiece that left me stunned. Much like Darren Aronofsky's other masterpiece, Requiem, Pi left me speechless. Personally I found Pi much more entertaining than the harsh Requiem for a Dream. Aronofsky does a beautiful job of tying in the mystery of pi, the meaning of life and the tortuous genius of the main character. I highly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and hard to follow
Review: Pi was, is, and always will be, a movie not meant for the masses. The plot is hardly one that most can sympathize with. A disturbed, neurotic mathematician with schizophrenic tendancies spends his life trying to find a fantastic number that is not only the name of God, but is also the key to unlock important patterns in life.
Visually, the movie is difficult to follow. The grainy black and white print is difficult to interpret for one who is used to crisp digitally edited prints. The movie looks like something that would be screened on a wall in an art museum.
The soundtrack is wonderful, and creates a sense of eerie unreality. The techno may annoy some, but creates the proper mood of loneliness.

All in all, a well made movie with a plot that's hard to relate to, and pictures that are occasionally difficult to understand. But doesn't it have a killer ending? :)

Rating:
Summary: PI!
Review: This movie has very interesting theory. It states that patterns exist everywhere: in nature, in science, in religion, in business. The main character is named Max Cohen. He is a mathematician searching for these patterns in everything. Yet, he's not the only one, and everyone from Wall Street investors, looking to break the market, to Hasidic Jews, searching for the 216-digit number that reveals the true name of God, are trying to get their hands on Max. This has alot going for it, and it delivers all the way. It is one of my favorite movies, and I highly suggest seeing this movie as soon as possible.

Rating:
Summary: A director with a great visual style, however...
Review: this movie is an insult to anyone that completed 8th grade math. I would not recommend it to a casual viewer. However, if you are sincerely interested in Darren Aronofsky, meaningless math-babble, or just think that seeing people play Go in a movie makes it totally cool and intellectual, then by all means, you best gobble this one up.

Visually it is stunning, and the handheld work and other characteristics are very good and even somewhat original. Much of the visual styling was repeated (and augmented) in the much superior Requiem for a Dream, a movie that was thankfully not penned by Aronofsky. Pi might have been saved from a quagmire of innumeracy if a mathemetics consultant of ANY caliber was employed in the writing of the script. Instead we get the most insulting pseudo-intellectual script (that has ever been taughted as high art) in recent memory. I haven't had the opportunity to consult any professional mathematicians on this account, but the writing (or in this case, the scribbling in crayon) is on the wall.

Darren Aronofsky is clearly talented as a director. Requiem should be remembered and Pi forgotten. Hopefully his great visual style will progress and mature in future work. It would be unfortunate if he turns himself into a cliche rather than a director.

Rating:
Summary: "L'Age Blanc ......."
Review: Slightly like yesterday's soup, this tribute to Luis Bunel ['L'Age d'or', 'Un Chien Andalou', etc.] creepily pulls the viewer along its rather 'high-school' conceived plot - everything has a formula, everything reduces to numbers ....

Visuals are interesting but repeated - especially in the editing of the later "Requiem for a Dream" - although it's taunting to imagine what this director might have done to 'Solaris" - [yes, there's also the obvious Kubrick kick - and quite a lot of Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" thrown in for good measure ...

Well, back to the drawing board .... but leave the ants to Bunel....

Rating:
Summary: All's well that ends well . . .
Review: And this film doesn't end well. A fascinating, disturbing, gripping tale that sputters out into droll nothingness. Boo.

Rating:
Summary: God is a number but the number doesnt exist...
Review: A mathematician on the threshhold of madness tries to come up with the "magic" number that will crack the secrets of Wall street. To do this he lives in a "world within a world" of his own where his personal (and almost alive, brings to mind HAL) computer is the size of his room and where he seems to be cabled-in with it as he tries for the breakthrough.
But simoultaneously, the number he's looking for seems to be of great importance for a sect of Orthodox Jews who consider it to be the one that will unlock the secrets of god as well.
Metaphysics meet science and science meets insanity in an incredible film that has already earned characterisations that range from classic to cult.
And for good reason too. Shot entirely in black and white and on very low budget "Pi" reminds everyone that independent cinema remains the only true hope for the thinking viewers. The main character (you've never seen him before but you will agree he's a perfect match for the role) is ultra-convincing and the few other characters that appear are carefully casted and compliment the movie as well.
Allthough i'm not aware if "Pi" won any awards for photography i would be shocked if it hasn't. Camera and photography-wise the film is an undisputed masterpiece. The director and crew have done an astonishing job to capture the claustrophobic story and throughout one has the feeling that he's watching this whole thing from up close.
Numerology freaks as well as conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this as it's full of references from beginning to end.
Some have criticised the ending, but think about it: how could you possibly end this film in a way that would "universally" satisfy the audience??? You simply can't. If you would that'd mean that you would have to come up not only with a great film but with the equation to end all equations as well, and i mean, come on, we're asking for a bit too much here.
As i watched it i thought (halfway during the movie) that the end would be critical but eventually i realised that this is besides the point, as "Pi" intends to serve more as food for thought rather than offer answers. It intends to show a stranger's struggle for answers so it could function as a mirror for anyone seeking similar answers too. And it manages that in a very eerie way. It also intends to provoke and create controversy around itself. After all what "Pi" deals with is existentiality, and as such it is bound to ask a lot but not be able to answer everything.
As if everything concerning this brilliant moment of cinema wasn't good enough the soundtrack is a treat too! True, it's not as intimidating as when it came out (thing have moved on a bit since then) but for those that have not discovered the beauties of the electronic scene it will be a chance for them to delve and find out about gems that have eluded them.
This is easily one of the top films within the last 10 years and ranks way high on the list in its genre.What genre is this?
Well how about "science fiction-thriller-social commentary-drama"?
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.