Maria del Carmen (Maria Onetto) rushes around her house preparing for a party. She’s baking and cooking, greeting the guests as they arrive, and keeping everyone’s plates full. And when it comes time for the birthday cake to come out she lights the candles, carries it to the table, and smiles as everyone sings Happy Birthday. To her. She’s not one to complain about her duties as mother and wife, but she’s showing signs that being taken for granted no longer feels like appreciation. She pauses while cleaning up after her party to peruse one of her gifts… a puzzle. Piece by piece, she fits the small cardboard bit together until the final image is complete before here. She finds an unusual satisfaction in the accomplishment, and while it’s unfamiliar for several reasons the most prominent is that the action was for her and her alone.

What do you call a zombie movie without zombies? The smart-asses among you will say 28 Days Later, but that at least had killer humans acting like zombies… no, I’m referring more to the idea and atmosphere of a zombie movie but without the actual brain-munching undead. What you’d have is the new, blackly comic, Argentinian thriller, Phase 7. Coco (Daniel Hendler) and his very pregnant wife Pipi (Jazmín Stuart) are shopping and bickering with love when the other customers around them start panicking and rushing the store. It’s a peripheral panic though as the couple barely notices the frenetic nature of their fellow city dwellers. At least not until they return home and see news that a global virus has spread to epidemic level and has finally reached their home of Buenos Aires. A quick trip down to the lobby late at night sees a neighbor being wheeled out and a plastic barrier going up… the building has been quarantined and the residents are trapped within.

When a young man is dumped by his long-time girlfriend, he suspects the source of their collapse lives in his very own city. He knows she was communicating in a chat room with a blond Lothario so he has a female acquaintance get in touch with the same blond man to find out where he lives. The acquaintance, having been invited to the blond man’s house for some romantic entanglements, is greeted by a rather nasty surprise.

If your interest was piqued when we talked about Carancho last fall during Fantastic Fest, or if you’re just a Ricado Darin fan from his turn in The Secret in Their Eyes, you’ll definitely want to check out this exclusive clip we got our hands on by following it around town until it got hit by a car. The movie is the story of an immoral lawyer who earns his bread by chasing down accident victims and somehow being at a few before they even happen. He meets a junkie nurse, the two start sharing a few wistful glances from across the stretcher, and a strange love blooms amongst the twisted metal. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that want our anti-hero lawyer dead. The scene here is a two-minute-long tracking shot that shows off just a fraction of the subtle artistry in the camera work, and a snapshot of the developing romance. Check it out for yourself:

If you need to make a quick buck, head to Argentina, follow an ambulance around, and leave your ethics at the door. Sure, you can stay here in the United States and do that, but where are you going to get some delicious alfajores for those long work days? Exactly. Argentina is the way to go. Plus, if Carancho is to be believed, you can find something resembling love amongst the wreckage. Ricardo Darin (who starred in The Secret in Their Eyes) plays Sosa, a lawyer who makes a living by chasing down many of the traffic accidents that kill 8,000 people annually in the country. He meets Lujan (Martina Gusman), a junkie doctor, and begins seeing her on dates where someone ends up on a stretcher. Of course, as they try to build a relationship, Sosa’s taking on the power of attorney for a case becomes an issue for his rivals. The kind of rivals that carry baseball bats and send messages with them.

There may be no stopping The Dark Knight, but the murder thriller Secret in Their Eyes might be the best poised to give it a run for its money. After the juggernaut beat out fanboy and zombie favorite Shaun of the Dead, it faces the Argentine film that easily beat Small Boy in Round One. The USA is the heavy, heavy favorite here, but if there’s one thing that the Movie World Cup has represented in all of its hallowed years, it’s the grand tradition of the upset.

Nigeria already fell to Argentina in today’s World Cup game, but in the fifth match of the Movie World Cup’s Round One, they find themselves underdog against Argentina yet again. Despite the power of Small Boy, it’s not as well known or lauded as The Secret in Their Eyes (which Rob Hunter loved). It will be difficult to find it’s legs against the murder thriller, but miracles in the face of intense pressure is what the Movie World Cup is all about.

A murdered woman. An intrepid federal employee. An unspoken love affair. And a naked, little, gold man.

Francis Ford Coppola continues his commitment to small, personal filmmaking with Tetro a dysfunctional family melodrama that makes great use of its moody black-and-white.