--- title: "Pi" year: 1998 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/pi" fi1m_id: "pi" imdb_id: "tt0138704" tmdb_id: 473 wikidata_id: "Q937762" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-13" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:20.529609+00:00" region: "RO" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Pi (1998) Directed by Darren Aronofsky · 1h 24m · Mystery, Drama, Thriller ## Identity Pi - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/pi - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** pi - **IMDb ID:** tt0138704 - **TMDB ID:** 473 - **Wikidata ID:** Q937762 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138704/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/473, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q937762 **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 75 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* A mathematician could use some peace and quiet; the soundtrack has decided against it > *Pi* makes mathematical obsession tense, grubby and unexpectedly lonely. We recommend its grainy images and abrasive music to anyone with a taste for paranoid thrillers, though Aronofsky’s relentless pressure leaves his ideas underexamined. ## Synopsis Maximillian Cohen (Sean Gullette) is a mathematician absorbed by the possibility that numbers can explain the world around him. His search for patterns takes in the stock market and Jewish mysticism, bringing financial speculation and religious belief into the same investigation. As he pursues a mathematical explanation for what others might call chance, his own state of mind becomes part of the mystery. Darren Aronofsky writes and directs this thriller about the pursuit of knowledge and the dangers of obsession. Mark Margolis plays Sol Robeson, alongside Ben Shenkman as Lenny Meyer and Pamela Hart as Marcy Dawson. ## Review Darren Aronofsky’s *Pi* is a good paranoid thriller with a wearing habit of treating every thought as an emergency. Sean Gullette plays Maximillian Cohen, a mathematician searching for patterns that might explain far more than the stock market. Numbers, Jewish mysticism and the possibility of a universal explanation feed his obsession. Aronofsky keeps us close enough to share the strain, which is where the film succeeds. The emphasis stays on what the search is doing to him. Gullette makes Cohen’s certainty uncomfortable to watch, while preserving something of the loneliness underneath it. We believe he would let ordinary company slip away for the chance to prove himself right. Even when his reasoning becomes difficult to follow, that need remains understandable. Gullette does not ask us to find him agreeable, and the performance is better for it. Aronofsky presses the signs of psychological distress so hard, however, that we soon have little room to wonder about him. Matthew Libatique’s high-contrast black-and-white photography makes the strain visible: bright areas glare and dark ones swallow detail. The grain and shifting light make it difficult to look comfortably at an image, however carefully it has been composed. Matthew Maraffi’s production design helps make the urban surroundings feel cramped and unwelcoming, so the sense of confinement continues beyond Gullette’s performance. This is effective work, giving a largely cerebral pursuit somewhere unpleasant to happen. The images keep bringing us back to the discomfort of occupying Cohen’s point of view. We felt hemmed in by the grainy images and the pounding music. Clint Mansell’s score makes concentration feel physically exhausting, and its aggression is well suited to a man who cannot leave a thought alone. Oren Sarch’s editing keeps the pressure up, allowing the agitation to carry across the film without much breathing space. The combination works, though we began to want more variation in the pace. Sustaining alarm for this long can make distinct moments of distress start to feel much the same. The larger weakness lies in Aronofsky’s screenplay, which brings mathematics, stock-market speculation and Jewish mysticism together without making those connections equally persuasive. The prospect of finding a pattern beneath everything is enough to get a thriller moving. Once that prospect has been established, the writing too often returns to evidence that Cohen is unwell. We understand his compulsion, but we would like more opportunity to consider what fascinates him. The film’s confidence can become trying when it expects the intensity of a belief to make that belief interesting. As a paranoid thriller, *Pi* earns our recommendation by making a single person’s fixation so uncomfortable to share. The 84-minute running time helps, keeping a narrow, punishing experience from stretching beyond what it can sustain. There is enough vulnerability in Gullette’s performance to make the human damage matter, even when the theories cease to persuade. Save it for an evening when quiet is not a requirement. *Fi1m score 78, published 13 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to Pi’s intensity and invention, with praise clustering around its grainy, high-contrast black-and-white images and forceful soundtrack. The reviews repeatedly describe a film that draws viewers into its mathematician’s obsessive, paranoid thinking through sound and image. Aronofsky’s direction earns credit for ingenuity, while several critics find suspense and human vulnerability beneath the numbers, mysticism and conspiracy. The enthusiasm rests chiefly on how vividly the film conveys a mind under pressure. Reservations concern the storytelling: some reviews find the narrative thin or the ending disappointing. Sight and Sound offers the clearest dissent, arguing that the film’s self-conscious cleverness and insistence on its protagonist’s madness leave little space for drama. It also disputes the handling of mathematics, whereas RogerEbert.com praises its plausibility. The spread is mostly favourable, then, but the disagreement extends beyond taste in abrasive filmmaking to whether the ideas hold together. ## Straight answers **Is Pi worth watching?** *Pi* is worth watching for anyone with a taste for paranoid thrillers, and we scored it 78. Sean Gullette makes a mathematician's obsession uncomfortable to share, and the grainy black-and-white images and Clint Mansell's pounding score keep the pressure on for 84 minutes. Aronofsky's screenplay leaves its ideas underexamined, so it suits a taste for strain more than for argument. **How long is Pi, and what is it rated?** *Pi* runs 1h 24m. It is a mystery and drama film. **Where can I watch Pi in Romania?** *Pi* is not on any streaming or rental service in Romania at the moment. It is available in 5 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Pi, and is it suitable for children?** *Pi* carries a UK 15 certificate, and its discomfort comes from psychological pressure rather than from gore or jump scares. The film sits inside one man's deteriorating state of mind, with harsh images and abrasive music that make it wearing to watch, so it is not for children or for anyone who wants an easy evening. **How does Pi compare to The Conversation?** *Pi* and [*The Conversation*](https://film.one/film/the-conversation) both follow a solitary specialist whose need to understand does him harm, but Aronofsky's film is the more punishing and the less considered of the two. Coppola builds suspense patiently and Gene Hackman makes the loneliness hurt; *Pi* presses its alarm without pause. The earlier film is the better thriller, and we recommend it without hesitation. **What should I watch after Pi?** After *Pi*, try [*The Conversation*](https://film.one/film/the-conversation) (1974, Fi1m 92): Another solitary specialist discovers how badly the need to understand can go. Then [*Tetsuo: The Iron Man*](https://film.one/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man) (1989, Fi1m 82): Grainy monochrome and abrasive sound, with the bodily panic turned higher; and [*Cure*](https://film.one/film/cure) (1997, Fi1m 85): A patient investigation becomes frightening as certainty drains from every explanation. ### Reviews we read (10) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (85/100, inferred): Aronofsky's startling debut is a hauntingly bizarre black-and-white fantasia about a tormented mathematician amid a swirl of numbers, Jewish mysticism, and numerological stock market theory. Maslin highlights its daring ingenuity on a tiny budget and its obsessive intensity as a victory of independent imagination. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/17/movies/critic-s-choice-film-torments-of-a-math-whiz.html) - **Time Out**, TJ (85/100, inferred): Aronofsky's startlingly original debut constructs a paranoid vision from black-and-white cinematography, a pounding score and hallucinatory weirdness, sharing the protagonist's feelings of psychological disintegration. Maths meets millennial doom in one of the decade's true originals. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/pi) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (80/100, inferred): The film is a study in mental obsession and the risks a man takes in pursuing a dangerous mathematical quest that may unlock the secrets of the universe. Ebert praises its plausibility in terms of modern physics and math alongside its thriller elements centered on genius and madness. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pi-1998) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (75/100, inferred): The film is a brilliant intellectual adventure and dazzling bravura work of bold independent filmmaking with stunning high-contrast black-and-white visuals and energy. Thomas notes it builds suspense with dark humor but finds the ending a letdown that settles for a sentimental notion about life beyond mathematics. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jul-24-ca-6541-story.html) - **The Guardian** (70/100, inferred): The piece portrays Pi as an intense black-and-white burst of sound and image about a dysfunctional mathematical genius descending into mysticism and dementia. It is a good thing for American independent cinema even if it will not make mathematics sexy. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jan/05/features) - **Sight and Sound**, Mark Sinker (45/100, inferred): The film is a computer-age update of Der Golem by way of Borges, rendered as a Hegelian occult thriller that never fully sheds its sense of its own cleverness. While it looks great in high-contrast black-and-white, the overdetermined portrayal of the protagonist as madman wrecks much chance of drama and the maths is poorly understood. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/13) - **Empire**, Kim Newman: The film is absorbing in its intimate, grainy black-and-white depiction of a maths prodigy’s obsessive worldview and conspiracy-tinged madness, but ultimately disappoints by withholding the expected breakthrough in favour of a chilling ending. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/pi-review/) - **The Independent**: The critic finds the low-budget debut an enjoyable piece of paranoid US indie cinema with a roach-like energy, blending X-Files conspiracy with Tarantino-style flair and a British trip-hop soundtrack. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/london-film-festival-pi-1184359.html) - **Variety**, Dennis Harvey (**): Aronofsky's striking debut is a vaguely sci-fi, Kafkaesque black-and-white religio-mathematical thriller that will turn heads despite limited narrative drive and commercial prospects. Harvey praises the imaginative images creating urban claustrophobia and the helmer's evident talent and infinite promise, though it may exhaust viewers. [Read](https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/pi-1117436848/) - **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (85/100, inferred): The critic calls Pi a superbly inventive thriller and one of the most intelligent films of the Nineties, praising its edgy intellectual content that remains timeless. She singles out the frenetic camerawork, grainy black-and-white imagery, shifting light patterns, and aggressive techno soundtrack for immersing viewers in the protagonist's mindset while still conveying the human element of his vulnerability and loneliness. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/pi-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) ## Details - **Director:** Darren Aronofsky - **Director:** Darren Aronofsky - **Writer:** Darren Aronofsky - **Story:** Darren Aronofsky, Sean Gullette, Eric Watson - **Cinematography:** Matthew Libatique - **Editor:** Oren Sarch - **Music:** Clint Mansell - **Production design:** Matthew Maraffi - **Producer:** Eric Watson - **Cast:** Sean Gullette as Maximillian Cohen; Mark Margolis as Sol Robeson; Ben Shenkman as Lenny Meyer; Pamela Hart as Marcy Dawson; Stephen Pearlman as Rabbi Cohen; Samia Shoaib as Devi; Ajay Naidu as Farroukh; Kristyn Mae-Anne Lao as Jenna - **Runtime:** 1h 24m - **First release (the US):** 19 January 1998 - **Genres:** Mystery, Drama, Thriller - **Budget:** $60,000 - **Box office:** $3 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRjkQT9xLZs ## Where to watch in Romania Not streaming, renting or buying in Romania at the last check. Also available in: FI, JP, NL, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Independent Spirit Awards 1999: Best First Screenplay (won) - Open Palm Award 1998: Open Palm Award (won) - Sundance U.S. Directing Award: Dramatic 1998: Sundance U.S. Directing Award: Dramatic (won) ## If you liked this - *The Conversation* (1974), Fi1m 92: Another solitary specialist discovers how badly the need to understand can go. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-conversation.md) - *Tetsuo: The Iron Man* (1989), Fi1m 82: Grainy monochrome and abrasive sound, with the bodily panic turned higher. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tetsuo-the-iron-man.md) - *Cure* (1997), Fi1m 85: A patient investigation becomes frightening as certainty drains from every explanation. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cure.md) - *Seconds* (1966), Fi1m 84: Distorted faces and hostile surroundings turn personal dissatisfaction into sustained paranoia. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/seconds.md) - *The Double Life of Véronique* (1991), Fi1m 86: Another search for connections, with more room for tenderness and uncertainty. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-double-life-of-veronique.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/pi