Restate My Assumptions...

Rating: Null/10 (6 July 2001)

This is one of the most incredible movies I've seen in the last ten years. Perhaps it's remarkable enough that this is Arnofsky's first major film and that it's so artistically mature and entertainingly enthralling, but that's not what really amazes me. What really amazes me is that this is the only movie I can think of that has been made in the last 20 years that I can't compare to any significant extent to any other film. While almost all movies (even the good ones) anymore are to some degree rehashed from previous stories, Pi is really unlike anything I have ever seen or heard of before. It's a true original. And the visuals, the utter intensity, and the incredible polish of the storytelling are absolutely mind-blowing by any measure, but especially considering how incredibly low-budget it was. Anybody who thought The Blair Witch Project was impressive on its budget should see this movie. My only complaint is that it wasn't longer and didn't go even deeper into the concepts it examines, but I guess we can't have everything and in reality there actually isn't any more story to be told than it already tells. Short as it is, it's still deep enough to leave your head spinning.