In the film Max quotes his assumptions: “Mathematics is the language of nature. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature.” This philosophy is as delicate as any. Some believe in fait and chance, while others, like myself, construe a hypothesis that there is logical reason hidden behind everything in life, and that somewhere down the road there is eventually a simple cause and effect to any hurdle our universe can toss in front of us.

As depicted in Max’s psyche, repetitiveness can be a powerful medium. This is another skill of directing endorsed by Darren Aronofsky. For example, many migraine sufferers are alerted of their upcoming headaches by numerous symptoms. In Cohen’s case, it is a severe twitching of his thumb. Once he starts jittering you cannot help but quiver for the upcoming thumping bass lines overlain with shrills reminiscent of a banshee that digs the viewer deep into Max’s headache consumed cerebrum. Immediately following the actual pain, Max enters a brief moment of hallucination, preceded by a nosebleed, and then a black out followed by a state of euphoria caused by heightened levels of dopamine. This sequence is repeated time and time again. The concentration of this repetitiveness is so powerful it almost strikes as a warning, teaching one to ignore the temptations of curiosity. An act young Max succumbed to once he looked into the sun.

Using such drastic, influential artistic measures often eludes the fact that all the ideas in p are factual, but the glue that holds the film together, the syntax between the lines, all came from “plagiarized” facts from textbooks and bibles.

Euclid, his computer, along with Sol, his mentor and only trustee, in a way symbolizes Max’s inevitable future. As they both grew closer to answer the unknown, they began breaking down, both catching a bug and eventually terminating themselves amidst great discovery. The closer Cohen grows to conquer his goal of affiliating a logical equation with the spiral and everything around us, the more it wears on him. He eventually realizes this and ironically “removes” his genius with the very drill he used to construct Euclid, to live a more surreal life. In a demented way this represents how we are our own enemy, and have to defeat a part of ourselves to overcome obstacles.

For instance, while C

Some topics in this essay:
Darren Aronofsky, Clockwork Orange, Monsoons Hawaii, Pi Euclid, Maximilian Cohen, Sean Gullette, , Darren Aronoksy, Chinatown York, Euclid Cohen, maximilian cohen, black white, repetitiveness powerful, day day, sound effects,