Taste the latest from the vibrant Latin American cinema scene with these films: a recent Ariel Award–winner and a New York Film Festival hit.

Come early Thursday for a public reception with members of the Hispanic Chamber of Columbus with light snacks and a cash bar.

Winner of three prizes at last year’s Ariel Awards (the Mexican Oscars), Lake Tahoe tracks the absurd encounters of a teenage boy as he searches for someone to help him fix the car he’s crashed. Director Fernando Eimbcke’s follow-up to Duck Season (a favorite at our 2008 Cinema Latino series) features a resonant emotional center and a deadpan sense of humor sure to delight fans of Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki. (89 mins., 35mm)

One of the sleeper hits of the 2008 New York Film Festival, the Mexican film I’m Gonna Explode is a stylish, sexy, and cool meta-movie in the vein of early French New Wave classics. Two disaffected suburban high-school kids become pretend outlaws as they go on the lam—without leaving home. Here’s a great couple-on-the-run movie in the tradition of Bonnie and Clyde and Pierrot le fou. (106 mins., 35mm)

I’m Gonna Explode begins at 8:40 PM.

Cinema Latino is cosponsored by the Hispanic Chamber of Columbus.

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