ATLANTA (AP) -- Tyler Perry is known for creating opportunities for black actors. But recently the African-American filmmaker weathered a backlash for assembling an all-white starring cast for the TLC drama series “Too Close to Home.”　  Perry rejects the criticism, much of it on social media. Some questioned his casting choices, with one calling the show an “all time low” for the producer when the series aired this year.　  But by the end of the season, those harsh words turned mostly into praise

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- In 1979, Annette Bening was 21 years old. A year earlier she had moved from San Diego to San Francisco to study classical drama. She remembers it as a time of tremendous change and uncertainty and the big moments like the day Harvey Milk and George Mascone were killed, but, for the most part her head was in Chekov and Shakespeare and Shaw and Arthur Miller. 　  So when she read the script for Mike Mills‘ “20th Century Women,” now in limited release, it caught her of

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story(US)Opened Dec. 28Epic, sci-fi. Directed by Gareth EdwardsFormer scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) leads a peaceful existence on a farm with his wife and daughter Jyn (Felicity Jones). His world comes shattering down when evil weapons developer Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) takes him from his family. Galen becomes the head engineer in developing a deadly weapon that will control the Death Star galaxy. Jyn, who has sided with the Rebel Alliance, sets out on a miss

Ben Affleck is apparently at war with Ben Affleck. It is rare to come across someone with such gifts as both an actor and a director who struggles so much when it comes to directing himself as an actor. The new “Live by Night” finds him pulled in so many conflicting directions that what he ends up with is neither elegantly concise nor an epic sprawl, but rather something just awkwardly misshapen.“Live by Night” finds Affleck wearing the hats of director, star, screenwriter and producer, and in t

“Confidential Assignment,” an upcoming crime action flick starring Hyun Bin and Yoo Hae-jin, is slated to hit theaters on Jan. 18, its production companies CJ Entertainment and JK Film said Wednesday.　The film tells the story of the fictional first cooperative investigation between the South and North Korean police, to capture a North Korean criminal group that has defected and infiltrated South Korea. Hyun Bin (left) and Yoo Hae-jin star in “Confidential Assignment.” (CJ Entertainment)It center

Sandra Huller does the subtlest, loveliest double take you’ve ever seen. More a quick dart of the eyes, really, followed by a tensing of the shoulders, before her expression hardens and her mind leaps into damage-control mode.It’s a gift that this brilliant German actress keeps giving in “Toni Erdmann,” in which she stars as Ines Conradi, a tightly wound corporate consultant who has become so skilled at managing her clients’ moods and demands that she knows just how to react — or not react — whe

PARIS, (AFP) - Makoto Shinkai has a problem, a big problem. His mystical teenage body-swap movie “Your Name” has become such a massive hit it’s beginning to worry him.“It’s not healthy,” the boyish director told AFP. “I don’t think any more people should see it.”Every week it gets closer to being the biggest Japanese animated film of all time.And now there’s talk of Oscars. “I really hope it doesn’t win,” he added.It would be funny if Shinkai wasn’t so in earnest about getting off the promotiona

BUDAPEST, (AFP) -- Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Hugh Jackman. Spotting hunky Hollywood actors is no big deal any more in Budapest, now one of Europe’s top hubs for foreign film productions thanks to attractive tax breaks and cutting-edge facilities.Some of the biggest US blockbusters in recent years were filmed here, including 2015 action comedy “Spy” with Jude Law and 2016 mystery thriller “Inferno” featuring Tom Hanks.The 60-year-old star of the sequel to Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” spent seve

NEW YORK (AP) -- “Make sure they know to play it loud,” the filmmaker Maren Ade advises ahead of a screening of her film, “Toni Erdmann.”Since its rollicking debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, “Toni Erdmann” has been the unlikely rock star of the international film festival scene. It’s a German comedy that runs 162 minutes and prominently features fake teeth, Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All” and a furry Bulgarian kukeri costume . “I knew I had something that I liked,” said Ade in

Women, female relationships and political intrigue were the hallmarks of Korean cinema this year. A number of films that delved into the world of the occult, driven by unfathomable forces of evil, also stood out in a year that saw the return of some of Korea’s most renowned directors, including Park Chan-wook and Na Hong-jin, who each added significant pieces to their idiosyncratic oeuvre. Spotlight on women  Kim Tae-ri (left), Kim Min-hee star in "The Handmaiden." (CJ Entertainment)Kim Ha-neul

BURBANK, California (AP) -- Choreographer Mandy Moore was lying under a car on the hot pavement while more than 100 dancers above her twirled through gridlocked LA freeway traffic during the opening number of “La La Land.”The sequence was months in the making -- the most complicated ever undertaken by Moore, who’s been creating routines for TV’s “Dancing With the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” for years.“I’m going to call it hashtag panic attack,” the Emmy-nominated choreographer said o

 The son of the popular actor Song Kang-ho joined a South Korean professional football club Thursday.Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the top-flight K League Classic said they drafted right fullback Song Jun-pyung out of Yonsei University.The 20-year-old previously played on Maetan High School based in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, some 45 kilometers south of Seoul.In this photo provided by Suwon Samsung Bluewings football club, Song Jun-pyung (top row, second from R), son of the popular actor Song Kang-h

Social status and emotional hierarchy explored in a provocative story