Review of Pi (1998) by Melvin W — 19 Mar 2012

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.