Pi (1998)

The first feature film Darren Aronofsky directed was ironically the last of his directorial canon I had yet to watch. Seeing it now I can't help but view it through the filter of his later work, and notice how it so early establishes his signature motif, all of Aronofsky's films are dark tales of an obsessive character (or characters) coming mentally unhinged. In the case of Pi it is a brilliant shut in Jewish mathematician living in a run down New York apartment. The character Maximillian Cohen (played by the still largely unknown Sean Gullette) is on the verge of uncovering a mathematical code that could be the key to everything from successfully predicting the stock market to communing with God, his obsession to unlock its secret is not likely to go well for him. Shot in a grainy black and white and concerning an awkward loner in a grimy urban setting this film has been rightly compared to David Lynch's first feature film Eraserhead, and like Erasherhead I don't know if I'll ever be completely sure what I think about it. I imagine seeing Pi around the time it first came out would be a drastically different experience then seeing it now, especially after seeing the rest of Aronofksy's canon, this film very much informs the ethos of the directors next feature film Requiem for a Dream, even down to the oft repeated ritual drug montage. An odd picture which I can appreciate in a detached manner, but which I never really felt much of a connection with. ***1/2