Ray Liotta gets thrown around in the 1st clip from 'Killing Them Softly'

With Cannes just a few days away, we're starting to see a flood of clips and images from some of the most highly anticipated films not only of the festival, but of the year. One of those is Killing Them Softly(aka Cogan's Trade), Andrew Dominik's follow-up to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. That film isn't a particular favorite of mine(mostly because of Brad Pitt), but Dominik's beautiful, dream-like style was to be admired.

It's unclear whether we'll get any of those surreal qualities in this film, but you certainly don't see it in this first clip. The story revolves around an enforcer(Brad Pitt) who is brought in to investigate when a mob-protected poker game for high stakes gets robbed. In this clip, we see Ray Liotta getting roughed up by Sam Shepard and Slaine(Gone Baby Gone, The Town), who proceed to toss him right out of his own trailer. I love the way Dominik shoots this, keeping us in the dark as to what's going on inside until the very end. What it tells me is that this might be a more comedic film than I had thought. And seriously, how awesome is Slaine? The guy is already one of my favorite rappers as part of La Coka Nostra and Special Teamz, and now he's turning into one of my favorite character actors.

Killing Them Softly(man that title sucks) opens on September 21st....