Delayed Reaction: Pi

The Pitch: It's a movie about how you go insane if you look at numbers for too long*.

*This hits a little close to home.

An obsessive number theorist discovers a number that seemingly answers many of the big questions of the universe and other people want to understand the number for their own purposes.

I'm not hip when it comes to talking about movies. I like when a director has resources and knows what he/she is doing. I'm not the guy who will look to the early movies and say "that's his best stuff, before he was swallowed up by the big studios". I do like smaller, cheaper movies, but there is a threshold where the lack of polish turns me off too much. Christopher Nolan's Memento is right on that line. I really like that movie, but I like his later stuff a lot more. Reservoir Dogs is still my favorite Tarantino movie, but that's more about the bloat of his later films than some belief in that movie's excellence. Besides, that movie looks pretty good. Clerks is nice, but I'm inclined to watch Smith's later movies more.

I've heard some people talk about Pi as Darren Aronofski's best movie. I think that's rubbish. Pi is fine. It's an interesting thriller. The central idea is pretty original. He skillfully gets more tension out of the situation than the description - a mathematician discovers a special number - suggests. This movie absolutely feels more like a tryout for something bigger though. I get that using black and white is a nice trick to keep the cost down. I don't think he would've shot it like that had color been an adorable option. I don't think the black-and-white adds anything special to this. The acting is fine, but it's also a case of him making the most with who he could get. Often people, including myself, like to romanticize the idea of filmmakers working around limitations. I think that's only true to an extent. Pi is good, especially for what it cost, but I much prefer watching an Aronofski movie when he has more resources.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend