It's survival of the fittest, Max--and we've got the f%#@ing gun.

Rating: 9/10 (28 August 1999)

First off, Pi is very much a "love-it-or-hate-it" kind of film. I loved it. For me, it was less about the number theory, and more about a base human emotion-paranoia. And, in that sense, the movie was extremely effective. The starkness of the black and white picture, the dizzying camera angles, the techno soundtrack all put the viewer smack in the middle of Max's paranoid world. Overall, this was a worthy effort from a young, first-time film maker. To borrow a phrase from a friend of mine: This may not have been the best film of '98, but it was one of my favorites. Now to my second point: After reading the posts of others who've seen Pi, I was disturbed, and rather offended by some of the oh-so-smug statements condemning people who enjoyed this movie to the status of pretentious, shallow, art-house morons who lacked the intelligence to see the scientific and mathematic flaws. People like that are just as heavy-handed, self-righteous, and annoying as people who accuse others who didn't like this movie (or others like it) of being to stupid to "get it". *Attention* Pi is a work of fiction, NOT a documentary. I, for one, do not walk into a fictional movie expecting to get a completely accurate account.