|
New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.
Reviews A-C Reviews D-F Reviews G-J Reviews K-M Reviews N-Q Reviews R-T Reviews U-Z Redbelt **1/2 Roman de gare **1/2 Son of Rambow **1/2 Speed Racer [review coming soon] Still Life **** Iron Man *** More A Collection of 2007 Academy Award Nominated Short Films The Hottie and the Nottie I'm Not There Over Her Dead Body Paddle to the Sea The Red Balloon Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies (Criterion Eclipse #10) Teeth Twister: Special Edition More My Top 60 Directors [Updated] Charlton Heston (1924-2008) Scott B. Smith Estelle Parsons Roger Donaldson Roy Scheider (1932-2008) Mike Binder James McAvoy Tony Gilroy David Cronenberg & Viggo Mortensen William Friedkin Peter Fonda & James Mangold Kasi Lemmons on Talk to Me Steve Buscemi on Interview Lynn Hershman-Leeson Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg & Nick Frost on Hot Fuzz Scott Frank, Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Matthew Goode The Top 50 Movies of the Past Ten Years (1997-2006) Bong Joon-ho, director of The Host Mark Polish, Michael Polish & Billy Bob Thornton My latest blog entries at cinematical.com The 'Mexican New Wave' Interview with Singaporian Filmmaker Djinn Joe Carnahan & Jeremy Piven Interview Terry Zwigoff on the new Bad Santa Director's Cut Alfonso Cuarón Interview Guillermo Del Toro Interview Chris Noonan Interview Robert Altman (1925-2006) Scarlett Johansson: A Study in Scarlett Christmas Movies Combustible Celluloid's Big Guide to Halloween & Horror Movies Joe Eszterhas Jet Li Zach Braff Kirby Dick James Ellroy Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Adrien Brody Steve Irwin (1962-2006) Elisha Cuthbert/Jamie Babbit Matt Dillon David R. Ellis Maria Bello Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson Mickey Spillane (1918-2006) Al Gore Cult Movies Actress Interview Gallery The Top 100 More Features and Interviews James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis Guide to Essential Movies, by Joe Leydon Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, by Robert S. Birchard Profoundly Disturbing, by Joe Bob Briggs A Third Face, by Samuel Fuller Dark Lover, by Emily Leider Agee on Film, by James Agee Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks Negative Space, by Manny Farber 5001 Nights at the Movies, by Pauline Kael More Books The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews! Sign up for my weekly newsletter! More of Jeffrey's reviews are available at: Rotten Tomatoes and All Movie Portal. About Lists Gallery News Links E-mail me. |
Pi (1998)Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4) Vicious CircleBy Jeffrey M. Anderson
The name of the film is Pi (a.k.a. π), a mathematical figure that helps calculate the area and circumference of a circle. Pi is the result of the division of a circle's circumference by its diameter. The number begins with 3.14, but it continues into infinity, supposedly without ever repeating a pattern. This small mystery has baffled great minds for generations. The writer and director of the film, Darren Aronofsky, became fascinated by this world of logic, and decided to make a film along these lines. Pi tells the story of Max Cohen (Sean Gullette), a mathematician who believes that nature is made up of mathematics, and that mathematics contains patterns. His goal is to try and find a pattern in the stock market. This, of course, could net Max a lot of money and screw up the world market at the same time. Some Wall Street types in business suits show up to keep control of Max and the situation. Meanwhile, Max meets Lenny Meyer (Ben Shenman), a Hasidic Jew who is also a mathematician, but of a different sort. He explains to Max that the Torah is also made up of numbers, and that he's trying to find the pattern in it. He knows that the pattern is 216 characters long. Max visits his former professor, Sol (Mark Margolis), who had been trying to find the pattern in "pi" before he had a stroke and gave up. Sol also mentions the number 216. As Max gets closer and closer to the answer, more and more people begin meddling with him. On top of everything else, Max gets screeching, flashing headaches that cause him to hallucinate and pass out. These sequences are frightening, unpleasant, and very effective. You can almost feel the pain. The film is shot in very harsh, gritty, bleak, grainy black-and-white 16mm. Pi looks like a student film, but it's the absolute belief and trust by everyone involved that pull this film off and make it seem professional. The actors are all very capable, and give natural performances. The editing is sharp, and the camerawork makes claustrophobic angles work. My only complaint is that it is difficult to see the elaborate computer setup in Max's room, where we spend most of the film, clearly. In fact, the whole film in general may be too grainy for most people's tastes. When the plot sticks with the math, its genuinely exciting and interesting, but when we go to Max's headaches and hallucinations, we get into some seemingly gratuitous nightmare imagery (brains, blood, tumors, etc.) that will turn some people off. Still, the film moves fast (it's 85 minutes long), and I think it's destined to pick up a cult following of people who are tired of the same old thing. Starring: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart, Stephen Pearlman, Samia Shoaib |
| Home |
News |
Search Reviews |
Classic Movies |
DVDs |
Features |
Film Books |
Gallery |
Links |
About |
The Rating System |
Email Me |