|video| Common Is DOPE! In Sundance Film Festival Movie "LUV"

   
In the crime drama LUV, one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the Sundance Film Festival, Common stars as Uncle Vincent, an ex-con trying to go straight who takes his young nephew with him on a business trip that inadvertently leads him back down the deadly path he’s been trying to avoid.

Along the way, the kid (played by Michael Rainey Jr.) learns some basic survival skills — like how to drive a car (scary) and, in a scene not shown here, how to shoot a gun (“scary” doesn’t cover it).

Watch the exclusive clip after the jump.

Every kid wants an uncle like the one Common plays, someone who will treat them like adults -- even if they're not. On the flip side, no parents want their kids to have an uncle like this. If he thought hard about it, Uncle Vincent, whose fearsome qualities are tinged with a kind of mournfulness about the person he has become, is more than likely on the parent's side.

For better or worse, the only thing he knows for sure -- the only thing he can share -- is how to survive. There's actually a lot of tenderness in the clip above. The darkness comes later.

"It begins with love, love coming from someone whose been through a lot of pain and struggle," Common tells EW. "He doesn't automatically see putting somebody in a situation like that to be as detrimental as it could be."

Common also recently released his ninth studio album The Dreamer/The Believer, which EW music critic Kyle Anderson rates an A-.

Keep an eye out for more news about LUV from the Sundance Film Festival, which runs from Jan. 19-29.

SEE THE VIDEO HERE