Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Writer/director Darren Aronofsky’s debut feature still pulses with the promise of a brilliant career ahead, swinging for the fences despite a meager budget and the limited technology of the era. Pi tells the story of Max Cohen, a tortured mathematical genius who sees the world as few do, detecting the patterns that exist all around us. He’s searching for an elusive 216-digit number that could have applications in the stock market and even in the divine, but his obsession might be killing him, or driving him insane, or both. And then paranoia creeps in, as forces seek to exploit his not-so-beautiful mind. What the filmmakers lacked in dollars they more than made up for in creativity, yielding a brisk, gripping tale told with genuine tension.

Pi has been restored and remastered by indie label A24 — which blew up the 16mm black-and-white original for IMAX exhibition last year in honor of the silver anniversary — now landing on disc in 4K and Dolby Vision. There’s been a debate about the merits of Ultra HD editions of films from lower-quality sources, and let’s just say that the format offers the opportunity for an exceptional preservation of a recent classic born of humble resources. Thankfully, the inherent grain is blatant rather than scrubbed away, while the whites have a tendency to be blown-out. Detail? Well, let’s assume that if it was captured in the 5:3 Ultra 16 frame, we’re seeing it here, but let’s manage expectations, too. I will say one cleaned-up scene late in the narrative is noticeably sharper from the rest, making it seem purposefully different.

The choice to make the Dolby Atmos remix the only audio option might come as a surprise, until we watch the movie and understand that we are meant to join Max inside his ever-agitated brain, with all of the chaos that comes with it. Surround usage is somewhat restrained for much of the movie, which only increases its impact when a speaker is suddenly called into action or we’re given a harsh sonic jolt.

The single disc carries two 1998 commentaries, one from Aronofsky and another from star Sean Gullette, in addition to a deleted scenes compilation and some behind-the-scenes footage, both with their own commentary. Also provided are a music video and a clip of the director accepting a Sundance Film Festival Award. This 4K release is exclusive to A24’s online store and arrives in a slipcase with a set of six low-res photo prints from key scenes.

ULTRA HD 4K BLU-RAY
STUDIO: A24, 1998
ASPECT RATIO: 1.66:1
HDR FORMAT: Dolby Vision, HDR10
AUDIO FORMAT: Dolby Atmos with True-HD 7.1 core
LENGTH: 84 mins., R
DIRECTOR: Darren Aronofsky
STARRING: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart, Stephen Pearlman, Samia Shoaib