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By Robert Scucci | Published
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was surprised that I understood math at a ninth-grade level. In ninth grade, my teacher was happy that I could follow everyone else. In the last year, it was still operating at the same level. I peaked early and that was it.
So I majored in Literature and Creative Writing because I already knew how to budget, balance a checkbook, and calculate the interest on the predatory student loans I had just signed over my life to. If I had stuck with math, I probably would have ended up like Max Cohen in 1998. Pia man so obsessed with numbers that they end up destroying him.
Pi It’s one of those independent films that makes you start seeing numbers everywhere. It’s like Jim Carrey The number 23but really smart. Complex mathematics and codes hidden in nature drive Max to madness, but it is his own psychological makeup that fuels the film’s tension. Even without mathematics, Max was destined for self-destruction.
The road to hell is paved with 216 digits
Pi follows Max Cohen (Sean Gullette), a number theorist convinced that mathematics underpins everything. Plagued by severe headaches and addicted to pain-control medications, he is obsessed with finding a pattern in Pi, the infinite, seemingly random chain of numbers that forms a perfect circle. A victim of his own genius, Max loses track of time and becomes increasingly paranoid as encounters with people who want to use his research for their personal gain become more frequent.
His mentor, Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), urges him to stop before he ends up like him. Sol once followed the same code, suffered a stroke, and now lives confined to a wheelchair. Lenny (Ben Shenkman), a Hasidic Jew who studies mathematical patterns in the Hebrew alphabet, believes that God buried a secret code in the Torah. Lenny and Max form a transactional relationship when Max’s computer, Euclid, spits out the same 216-digit number that Sol once found; Exactly the same number Lenny is looking for.
Meanwhile, Wall Street agent Marcy Dawson (Pamela Hart) tempts Max with a high-end computer chip in exchange for his data, forcing him to question her integrity and the purpose of his work at Pi.
The spiral is everywhere
Max’s explanation of the golden ratio and the spiral in Pi reflects the spiral that consumes his life. As he begins to see patterns in everything, Sol worries that Max’s mind won’t survive his obsession. As someone who peaked in 9th grade math, I understand these ideas mostly because of Tool’s side album. The short version is that, whether you are Max or a math-rock musician, you are chasing divine meaning through the patterns you know in the form of numbers, notes, or rhythms that you understand conceptually, but cannot fully understand their true meaning as a mere mortal.
As Max delves deeper into number theory, his body, mind, and spirit fall apart. Watching the spiral take hold is terrifying because you realize he’s not fighting a villain, but his own mind.
Pi Streaming
A certified and fresh independent psychological thriller. Pi It shows that if you look hard enough for something, you’ll find it, whether it’s real or not. It’s also a warning that when you get lost in obsession, the answers rarely make sense outside of your clouded, subjective judgment. This low-budget, high-concept masterpiece is a cautionary tale about genius and madness, and will make you wish you’d paid more attention in math class.
At the time of writing this article, you can transmit Pi free on Tubi.
