Netflix is taking me through Aronofsky films, as I've mentioned previously, though I wish I had watched this film before Requiem, at the very least because this was his first feature, and Requiem was his second. There are more reasons than just that. I see that lots of people love this film. I can't say I love it. I like it - it was definitely a mindbending jaunt for a Sunday night movie, and it left me feeling about as wired as Max Cohen must've felt. It was complex and intellectually stimulating. The use of the 16 mm was a brilliant way to film it, lending to the surrealist atmosphere of it all. But - it was not the life-changing viewing experience I was kind of expecting it to be, what with all of the rave reviews I see everywhere, including on Spout and on Netflix.
Max Cohen is a mathematical genius who has spent long, reclusive hours in his Chinatown (NYC) apartment on a homegrown computer system pockmarking his walls, attempting to unravel some sort of predictability in the stock market based on his belief that everything in the universe can be reduced to a system or pattern of numbers. His work has caught the attention of a Wall Street heavy-hitter and a Hasidic sect, each of which bases their individual interests and beliefs on a specific 216-large set of numbers extrapolated from the seemingly infinite sequence of the number pi. The trouble is, no doubt from staring at the sun too long when he was 6 in an attempt to see what others couldn't, Max suffers from some sort of brain disorder that causes him to have hallucinations and paranoid delusions, and it's hard to know whether or not these groups of people are real or imagined or exaggerated by his inability to process daily life. His only constant is his former mentor, Sol Robeson, who plays Go with him and discusses his work, something that Sol seems to have had a latent interest in himself but is ultimately made to fear, at least for the sake of Max's sanity.
Pi gets major points (like, at least 3.1415926) for originality and effort. This movie is not some popcorn-flick to numb the mind, though I kind of think I might have liked it a little better if I were on drugs. It makes me wonder where Mr. Aronofsky, director and auteur here, draws his inspiration. The intensely smart plotline, which does resonate a little like Kafka as the All Movie Guide description suggests, is something I have never seen before and doubt I will again. I enjoyed this aspect of it.
The trouble I am having with this film, and specifically, the plotline, is just how blurry the line between Max's hallucinations and his work becomes. It's not that I need the answer - what is real and what isn't and did he really stumble upon some answer to the mysteries of the universe. I think it's more effective not to be given an answer that neither Max nor the filmmaker truly has. It's not that I don't understand that the viewer is following the decay of his mind as the disorder and the restorative drugs he is taking seem to worsen his condition, and to that end, the movie transforms into the visual equivalent of his mental downward spiral. The trouble I have is that film exclusively follows Max around but fails, really, to develop this character in any meaningful way, which left me completely disconnected from moment one. I spent a large part of the film puzzling over why numbers should be so cool to him even if nature could be expressed in numerical sequences, why he wanted to figure out the stock market, and why he seemed to succumb to the persuasion of the Hasidic sect when he was so clearly against religion and religious tenets at the start of the film. The only time my interest or any want of a connection was piqued was when he seemed to have moments of clarity, and then I just got a little bored again when he started seeing brains and other fun visions everywhere again (this occurred multiple times). I also did not understand the presence of the Wall Street thugs, even if seen in paranoia.
I've never seen Eraserhead, but I have read that this movie inspires many comparisons. In more mainstream rather than midnight movie fare terms, this movie reminded me of a rough draft of A Beautiful Mind. The score was quite trippy - I felt like it was the audio equivalent of walking through a hall of mirrors or a carnival fun house while under the influence of something, which lent the movie a certain level of disturbed-ness and also made me feel a little nauseous, like I was on a Scrambler at a traveling carnival. The performance by Sean Gullette as Max was pretty daring but not necessarily believable, and the supporting cast was B or C level at best.
In the end, I liked what the movie was trying to do, and I liked it better than Requiem, but I don't feel like I've experienced any revelations or seen any life-changing presentation. Form any opinions you want about me and my movie tastes, but at least I gave the film a chance. I give this film a 7.5 between shaky and very good for what I consider to be some major flaws, experimental feature or no, but its level of originality and the direction, which alone was brilliant (as was, like I said, the decision to use 16 mm for the entire thing), and its intelligent storyline with many complex levels give it points for sheer intrigue. In the world of the test, it does not pass, though. I couldn't enjoy it on repeat viewings because I was left so disconnected, a little bored, and a little frustrated the first time. Plus, like I said, there was a palpable feeling of nausea growing inside me, even though the black and white cinematography softened images that would otherwise have grossed me out. As for Pi, the movie and the number are quite the mystery, and if you go in for that sort of thing, this movie is worth your watch.