’90s sci-fi thriller is a cringe-worthy early conspiracy from an iconic director
Author: Robert Skuch Published
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was amazed that I understood math at a ninth-grade level. By ninth grade, my teachers were happy for me to keep up with everyone else. By senior year, I 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 interest on the predatory student loans I’d just signed. If I stuck with math, I might be like Max Cohen in 1998 pia person who was so obsessed with numbers, was eventually destroyed by them.
pi is an independent film where you start seeing numbers everywhere. It’s like Jim Carrey’s No. 23but actually very smart. Complex mathematics and the hidden codes of nature drive Max toward madness, but it is his own psychological makeup that heightens the film’s tension. Even without math, Max is doomed to self-destruct.
The road to hell is paved with 216 numbers
pi Max Cohen (Sean Goulet) is a number theorist who firmly believes that mathematics is the basis of everything. Suffering from severe headaches and relying on medication to manage the pain, he became obsessed with finding patterns in pi, an infinite, seemingly random string of numbers that form a perfect circle. A victim of his own genius, Max loses his sense of time and becomes increasingly paranoid as he encounters with increasing frequency those who want to exploit his research for personal gain.
His mentor Saul Robertson (Mark Margolis) urges him to stop before he ends up like him. Saul once chased the same code, but suffered a stroke and now lives in a wheelchair. Lenny (Ben Schenkman) is a Hasidic Jew who studies the mathematical patterns in the Hebrew alphabet and believes God has codes buried in the Torah. Lenny and Max form a trading relationship when Max’s computer Euclid spits out the same 216-digit number that Sol once found; the exact number Lenny is looking for.
Meanwhile, Wall Street agent Marcy Dawson (Pamela Hart) lures Max with high-end computer chips in exchange for his data, forcing him to question his integrity and the purpose of his work. pi.
Spirals are everywhere
Max’s explanation of the golden ratio and spirals in pi reflects the spiral that consumes his life. As Thor begins to see patterns in everything, he begins to worry that Max’s mind cannot handle his obsession. As someone who peaked in 9th grade math, I owe my mastery of these ideas largely to the tools Lateral muscles album. In short, whether you’re Max or a math rock musician, you’re chasing divine meaning through patterns you know in the form of numbers, notes, or rhythms that you understand conceptually but can’t fully grasp their true meaning as mortals.
As Max delved deeper into number theory, his body, mind, and spirit collapsed. Watching Spiral is terrifying because you realize he’s not fighting a villain, he’s fighting his own mind.
Streaming Pi
A certified fresh indie psychological thriller, pi It turns out that if you look for something long enough, you’ll find it, whether it’s true or not. It’s also a warning that when you’re in the grip of an obsession, the answers rarely make sense beyond your vague, subjective judgment. This low-budget, high-concept masterpiece is a cautionary tale about genius and madness that will make you wish you paid more attention in math class.
As of this writing, you can stream pi Free on Tubi.
