With George Clooney‘s The Ides of March kicking off the Venice Film Festival tonight, Sony Pictures have released the first two clips and they both heavily feature Ryan Gosling. The first sees him teach his co-star George Clooney a little about political strategy and the second is an excellent meet-cute with Evan Rachel Wood. We’ll have to wait and see the full thing but it looks like a well-acted piece of work that might be too unsubstantial for big awards play. Based on Beau Willimon‘s play Farragut North, the film also stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Marisa Tomei. Check out the clips below via Apple/Yahoo and the trailer here.

Clip #1:

Clip #2:

Synopsis:

The Ides of March takes place during the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, when an up-and-coming campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency.

The Ides of March hits theaters October 7th, 2011 and will also play at the Toronto International Film Festival.