Alexandre Aja is one of today’s more exciting genre filmmakers. […]

When early in the forties a young Greek director called Elias Kazantzoglou showed up at a major Hollywood studio, the studio head (one imagines him sending cigar smoke the way of the hopeful visitor), advised him on a name change as a first step. “How about Cézanne?” the studio head asked. The director who would go down in film history as Elia Kazan demurred. “There already is a Cézanne,” he said. The studio head

“Cloud Atlas,” the latest effort from the Wachowskis, wraps a half-dozen stories, settings, and groups of characters into one film. But it doesn’t matter how many stories they do, their song remains the same. The “Matrix” helmers have hit the same point for a while now. Liberty is the freedom from illusions that are perpetrated by relationships of power. Bravery is the willingness to fight these illusions, and fighting these illusions takes the coll-