Pi
Live Film & Mediaworks Inc. | Release Date: July 10, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
It is a brilliant intellectual adventure that fans of bold independent filmmaking will want to experience, even though the ending is something of a letdown. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
A triumph of low-end production design, shot in sizzling, solarized black and white, and driven by a propulsive, insinuating score, Pi is a horror movie that makes you think and an indie film that makes you squirm. Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubJoshua Klein
Aronofsky's ability to capture the rush and confusion of racing down a timeline toward infinity, only to suddenly slam into a dead end, makes for impressive and occasionally disturbing stuff. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The seductive thing about Aronofsky's film is that it is halfway plausible in terms of modern physics and math. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
Whatever its faults -- and it has more than a few -- it is unquestionably different. It at least takes a stab at interpolating cerebral ideas into the format of a thriller. Read full review
80
SalonLaura Miller
It's precisely when Pi is the most arty and least "commercial," when it's serving up head scratchers instead of intrigue, that it's most entertaining. Read full review
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
This is very much a first feature, with all the hyperbolic, sometimes indiscriminate cinematic energy of a student film. But it's also sensational, a febrile meditation on the mathematics of existence. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Brilliant, surreal, and emotionally draining, this first feature from American Film Institute grad Aronofsky recalls such low-budget sci-fi epics as "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" and more traditional paranoiac suspense films (Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" in particular, but also Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby") and yet manages to be a wholly original animal. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
It proceeds, weirdly enough, from the truly annoying to the absolutely fascinating. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
Pi will not be for everyone, but for those who are fed up with the mainstream idiocy that gets dumped into theaters each summer, this movie willbe like a great big palate-clearing taste of sorbet. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie's freakazoid intensity gets to you, but there's something at once cramped and show-offy in Aronofsky's refusal to even slighty vary its atmosphere of shock-corridor burnout. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Audacious and bursting with ideas, the paranoid little sci-fi independent film Pi marks an auspicious debut for New York writer Darren Aronofsky. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
For anyone who wants a movie to feed their intelligence and imagination more than their eyes and ears, Pi is a solid choice. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This intellectual allegory would carry more punch if it didn't slip into melodrama so often, but it marks Aronofsky as an exceptionally promising new filmmaker. Read full review
70
The New YorkerBruce Diones
Aronofsky's delirious, Kafkaesque writing and imaginatively distorted camerawork don't quite add up, but it's fascinating, hallucinogenic film work. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
The film's imaginative, diverse images create a mind's-eye urban claustrophobia; such intensity may exhaust over 85 minutes' course, but it's never less than impressive. Read full review
70
Washington PostEve Zibart
Pi may be the most engrossing piece of cyberpunk cinema yet. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
As smart as it is, Pi is awfully hard to watch. Filmed with hand-held cameras in splotchy black-and-white and crudely edited, it has the style and attitude of a no-budget midnight movie. Read full review
60
Washington PostRita Kempley
In the end, it's primarily a brain teaser, obtuse and ultimately limited in its emotional impact. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Its power lies both in Aronofsky's evocation of tightly wound paranoia and in his flawless dovetailing of personal obsession and cultural anxieties. Read full review
60
Film ThreatTom Meek
Director Darren Aronofsky, creates an eerie "Eraserhead"-like world that keeps the film compelling even when it digresses into a silly cat-and-mouse psychodrama. Read full review
60
EmpireKim Newman
Shot in grainy, high contrast black-and-white with a lot of simple but effective optical and aural tricks to suggest the workings of his unusual mind, this is one of the most intimate movies in recent memory. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderBill Boisvert
With this odd mixture of elements the film's tone is gloomy, portentous, and hysterical, yet at the same time strangely earnest and square, as if David Lynch had tried to somehow make a movie version of Scientific American. Read full review
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