Let us for a moment dwell upon the genius of Darren Aronofsky.
Pi is a black-and-white (brilliant as hell) American psychological thriller, released in 1998. Aronofsky brings together mathematical theory and Jewish mysticism in a way that's both sobering and really freaking cool. Check out the trailer.
Sean Gullette plays a very Edward Norton-esque Max Cohen, an eccentric and reclusive mathematician suffering from chronic headaches and social anxiety disorder. Oh, also paranoia, possibly schizophrenia, and serious hallucinations. A radical number theorist, Max believes that if data sets are graphed correctly, patterns will eventually emerge in everything. So he pretty much stays in his apartment with his homemade super-computer (creatively named Euclid) - trying to find predictable patterns in the stock market.
Making a long (and extremely complex) story short, he's convinced by a Hasidic Jew he's met in a coffee shop that finding the 216 letter true name of God is way more important than the stock market. Max starts to obsess, which may or may not drive him crazy.
Then, at the end ... well, watch it. But it involves a drill, and then I'd say a fairly peaceful denouement.
The film cost only $60, 000 to make, and that money came from a number of private investors (read as: friends) who each threw in about $100 bucks. Gross revenue, however: $3, 221, 152. Nice, right?
Great movie. Conspiracy theory. The epic game of Go. A sexy Indian next-door neighbor. The golden spiral, nonlinear dynamics, and and a number with the power to bring about the Messianic Age. Watch it with a glass of whiskey, quick access to Wikipedia, and an open mind.
Oh - and the film's duration? 1:23:45.
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