Channing Tatum Shows His Dramatic Chops in Foxcatcher Trailer, Punching His Own Face and Smashing a Mirror With His Head

Actor is getting the best reviews of his career for the based-on-a-true-story crime drama costarring Mark Ruffalo and Steve Carell

Oscar buzz for the following year nearly always starts with the Cannes Film Festival in May, and Foxcatcher was right in the thick of it after premiering to rave reviews in France.

And Channing Tatum is getting the biggest accolades of all.

While costar Mark Ruffalo is used to such things and Steve Carell is a Golden Globe winner and nine-time Emmy nominee (as an actor and producer of The Office), the applause for Tatum's seriously intense turn as Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz in the based-on-a-true-story crime drama is a new height for the 22 Jump Street star in the performance-review department.

But just watch this new trailer for Foxcatcher, which won Bennett Miller the Best Director prize at Cannes, and it's easy to see why Tatum is being singled out.

SPOILERS AHEAD...

PHOTOS: Star sightings at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival

The 34-year-old actor stars as Schultz, whose brother Dave Schultz, also an Olympic wrestling champ, was shot to death by friend and multimillionaire USA Wrestling sponsor John E. du Pont in 1996.

Ruffalo plays Dave and Carell gives a decidedly creepy turn as du Pont, who was convicted of third-degree murder in 1997 and died in prison in 2010.

But Mark Schultz, whose autobiography inspired the film, is the one having a hard time in this trailer, which features Tatum giving himself a pep-talk-by-way-of-self-flagellation, smacking his own face and breaking a mirror with his head--a scary side we've yet to see of the Magic Mike star.

Hey, transformation is one-half of the Oscar battle, right? 

Foxcatcher hits theaters Nov. 14.