From the Hollywood Reporter:

Don McGlynn's 'Rejoice and Shout' is probably the first documentary ever to look comprehensively at the 200-year musical history of African-American Christianity - which is to say gospel music - and may well be the last. It certainly doesn't seem like McGlynn or his producer, Joe Lauro, who owns a vast collection of old records and music film footage, missed anything significant.

The doc is exhaustive in its compilation of the major acts and personalities in gospel music - to the point the narrative thread almost gets buried under the weight of names, dates, musical styles and vintage performances.

From Jezebel:

Salon's Joan Walsh dissects many of the recent stories about how white people feel that anti-white sentiment is on the rise. Look: It's not a competition. But when it comes to white people feeling discriminated against (Gothamist headline: "Regarding Racism, Whites Think They Are the New Blacks"), white people have no idea how soul-stomping, heartbreaking and difficult it is to be black in America.

Yesterday it was announced in the 'Hollywood Reporter' that Golden Globe-nominated actor Idris Elba will host and produce BBC America's newly branded drama franchise 'Dramaville,' which will include three BBC original series.

The franchise will premiere on August 17 at 10PM with the hour-long 1950s espionage-themed thriller, 'The Hour,' followed by Elba's 'Luther' on Oct. 5, while the crime drama 'Whitechapel' debuts on November 2.

From the indieWire:

I watched Swedish director Ruben Ostlund's film, 'Play,' twice. My first viewing was a really surreal moment, not just for the fascinating absurdness of the story but because the film was in Swedish with French subtitles. While I can read and understand written French better than I speak or understand spoken French (I have zero understanding of Swedish, written or spoken), there were several nuances that I missed completely first time around.

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From the Huffington Post:

Long before Denzel Washington was Denzel -- the two-time Oscar winner who is one of Hollywood's biggest stars -- he was a struggling actor taking the stage in summer stock and off-Broadway productions.

When he was cast as Malcolm X in "When Chickens Come Home to Roost" at the New Federal Theatre in 1981, little did he know that the role would propel his career into the stratosphere. Washington's electric performance captivated audiences and caught the attention of television producers assembling the cast for a new TV hospital drama, "St. Elsewhere," which went on to win multiple Emmys and push-start his jump to Hollywood. Sitting in the audience for one of those shows at the theater's home on Grand Street on New York's Lower East Side was a young NYU film student named Spike Lee, who was blown away by Washington's performance and chose him to play Malcolm X in his hit film nearly a dozen years later, a role which thrust the actor into the A-list of Hollywood stars.

Read more here.

From indieWire.

Last week, Europa Corp released the first trailer for the upcoming Zoe Saldana revenge thriller, 'Colombiana;' The yet-to-be-rated revenge actioner about a young woman who grows up to be a stone-cold assassin, after witnessing the murder of her parents in Bogota, is produced by Luc Besson, with Olivier Megaton assuming directing duties.

Read more here.

'Louder Than a Bomb' tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare to compete in the world's largest youth slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the turbulent lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa.

While the topics they tackle are often deeply personal, what they put into their poems-and what they get out of them-is universal: the defining work of finding one's voice.

Check out an exclusive trailer for 'Louder Than a Bomb' below.

EXCLUSIVE By Nikki Finke for Deadline.com: I've just been told that Penske Media Corp has terminated Elvis Mitchell after more than 3 months as Movieline.com's chief film critic. The early end to his contract follows a company investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mitchell's recent review of Summit Entertainment's Source Code for the site.

With Spring blossoming into season, the time has come for Hollywood to roll out its red carpet for this year's most anticipated films.

Over the course of the next few months some of your most beloved stars including, Angela Bassett, Idris Elba, Paula Patton, Tyrese Gibson and others will attract thousands of moviegoers across the globe.

Notable sequels such as 'X-Men - First Class,' 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon,' and 'The Hangover Part II' are already receiving a major buzz amongst film critics, not to mention the star-studded romantic comedy, 'Jumping the Broom.'

We took a look at the stars of this year's blockbusters.

Check it out.

Earlier this year it was announced that Oscar Award-winner Jamie Foxx signed on in association with his FoxxKing Entertainment to executive produce the music documentary, 'Thunder Soul.'

Directed by Mark Landsman, the docu-pic follows the alumni from Houston's acclaimed 1970's Kashmere High School Stage Band as they regroup 35 years later for a tribute concert in honor of their band leader, Conrad "Prof" Johnson. The 92-year-old was responsible for breaking the color barrier and transforming the school's struggling jazz band into a world-class funk powerhouse in the early 1970s.