An intense and surreal cerebral thriller.

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2018)

It's fitting that this should be Darren's debut work, seeing as how this is the first of his filmography that I'm personally seeing. The film itself is alright, but there are things that hold it back.
The pros specifically lie in the film's style and direction. The grainy black and white aesthetic compliment the oppressive and obsessive tone of the film. And the same goes for Darren's directing. While I personally wouldn't call it anything 'groundbreaking', the composition of the shots themselves are great and again play along with the film's tone and theme of obsession and paranoia.
The film's cons however lie in its writing and structure. The film's structure is scatterbrained to say the least. While the story isn't difficult to follow, the way the story is presented and concepts that are dotted throughout make the film a bit harder to process. And the surrealist elements while not exactly intrusive don't really help alleviate this confusion. The writing as well isn't really much to write home about, and in some instances can be written off as pretentious.
As I said before "Pi" was my introduction to Darren Aronofsky's works and from what I've seen, I can't really say that I'm too impressed. Granted I have yet to see "Requiem" or the highly controversial "mother!", so hopefully my mind will change then. The central idea of this film is certainly fascinating despite its loose math, and based on the direction and style alone is certainly worth a watch or two.