VENICE, Italy (AP) — George Clooney has arrived in Venice with a twisted tale of darkness at the heart of the American dream.

Clooney is at the Venice Film Festival as a director with "Suburbicon," a satirical thriller starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as residents of a seemingly idyllic suburban community.

The film is based on a script by Joel and Ethan Coen and partly inspired by 1957 events in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where white residents erupted in fury at the arrival of a black family.

The images of white rage feel unnervingly contemporary, recalling recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Clooney has said it's an angry movie that he hopes will "pick some fights."

Clooney, Damon and Moore are all due on the festival's red carpet for the film's gala premiere later Saturday.