Pi...

There was a time when truly creative films came out of the independent world. Men who bucked the system in every way and made radical cinema. Pi is a shining example of what raw, eager, free-thinking minds can produce with a story and a film camera. We'll call it, unique.

Pi is weird. It follows the exploits of a man obsessed with numbers. He can rattle off complex equations, he is constantly looking for patterns in everything. He carries a pencil with him and is at all times writing numbers, patterns, symbols. His goal is to crack the stock market. Find a pattern that will enable him to predict every jump and dive. He's helped by a computer named Euclid. This is not the HAL9000. This is a mis-mash of computer hardware, tubes, racks, and funky keyboards. The whole thing, including those keyboards, looks like it was glued together piece by piece. It's a dream machine for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it would be like to actually live inside a computer case.

Oh yeah, he's also slightly insane. He has these nuerotic episodes and blacks out. He tries to self medicate with such things as "...Beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, adrenalin injections, high dose ibuprofen, steroids, Trager Mentastics, violent exercise, cafergot suppositories, caffeine, acupuncture, marijuana, Percodan, Midrine, Tenormin, Sansert, homeopathics. No results. No results..." He hallucinates, and we get to experience that with him. They aren't stereotypical Hollywood hallucinations. This is the stuff you hear actual addicts describe. Right down to the physical abuse he puts himself through. It's harsh at times.

In the meantime, while he's trying to break the code of the stock market, some Kabbalah Jews come up to him. While working at his computer one day, he stumbled across a number 216 digits long. They believe this to be the true name of God and that intoning it will bring about the Messianic Age.

It gets a little murky here and there with the plot. The characters are well written, and the story feels complete. Just...murky. The acting is good. Nothing spectacular, but good. Some of the characters are pure cheese, but they aren't in it for long so you can get over it.

From a technical standpoint, it's everything late '90s independent cinema had to offer. It's filmed in this high contrast black and white with middle of the road microphones. You can hear everything, but some of it sounds like you're listening through a tube. The cinematography is good, considering what they had to work with. You're left with the impression that these guys had a film they really, really wanted to make. And make it they did. It was produced for $60,000 dollars and went on to be bought at Sundance for $1,000,000. The director, Darren Aronofsky would go on to make Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain.

If you like edgy, low-budget, independent films I recommend this.