∏

∏ or Pi is a film about madness, the first from Darren Aronofsky. It's about math, and that seems dull, but this movie is anything but. It's shot in black and white (very high contrast), and appears quite grainy and dreamlike. The main character is not unfamiliar to the movies, he's a brilliant young jew, Max Cohen, who keeps to himself and can tell you in an instant what 6670 times 34 equals. He's had a strange past, he has frequent, painful headaches (as if his head were splitting open) and everyone wants his talent. He's been working on probability and how to predict the stock market. He believes that math is everywhere in life, and most often in patterns, thus there should be an attainable and usable pattern with the stock market. Hasidic Jews are after him so that he can crack the numerical codes within the Torah, Stock Market moguls are after him (if they can discover a way to predict stocks, they'll get rich), but he just wants to crack the code. He goes crazy. From his headaches and obsessing over the specific number 216 (which he thinks is the key to the universe) he starts to see numbers everywhere. This is done is such a hypnotic and convincing way that the film becomes riveting. The film is not about math (although that is also quite interesting) but about the obsession of this antisocial Max Cohen to discover the answer to the universe. The answers are, of course, illusory, and he's doomed from the start. The journey that you go through with the character (excited that he may actually be on to something) is awing.
∏: ★★★