Confessions of an Ex-Doofus Itchy Footed Mutha
Do you really need to know anything about this film? Look at the title, it's brilliant. Playwright, blaxploitation superstar, writer/director, and father of Mario, Sweetback himself, Melvin Van Peebles ( Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song) returns with Confessions…. The festival's press release describes it as a "boisterous adventure that ranges from Harlem to the high seas." Peebles manages to toe a peculiar line between playfulness and social consciousness and his take on that oft-ignored genre - the picaresque Harlem seafarer tale - should have more depth than the whimsical title suggests. Either way, how often do you score a ticket stub with the phrase "Ex-Doofus Itchy-Footed Mutha" on it? Almost never.

Trucker
Of late, Michelle Monaghan has had a strange run. Last year she had prominent parts in two strikingly disparate films: the forgettable The Heartbreak Kid and the powerful Gone Baby Gone. Despite the vast difference in material, neither gave her much room to manoeuvre. In the former she played the love interest to a typically spastic Ben Stiller while in the latter she held her own against a career-making performance by Casey Affleck. As Trucker's titular driver, she finally gets a starring shot and a chance to break free from a seemingly infinite string of girlfriend parts. Here she plays a mother struggling to raise a daughter while coping with a sick husband and tire-heavy day job. Though truck driving films don't have a very promising track record (see Over the Top, Maximum Overdrive, and that still-frightening scene in Peewee's Big Adventure), family road movies do (see Little Miss Sunshine and Transamerica). Nathan Filion (Waitress, Serenity), Benjanim Bratt (Pinero, Thumbsucker), and Joey Lauren Adams (remember her?) also star.

Eden
Films about shaky relationships aren't as popular as love fables for the same reason that documentaries are under-attended: people hate hard truths. However, when done well, love hardship films can be powerful and poignant (see 5x2 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf). Eden examines the marriage of Brenda and Bill Farrell (Aiden Kelly and Eileen Walsh) as they approach their 10th wedding anniversary. Eugene O'Brien adapted his own play for the screen, so you can expect sharp dialogue and douche-chill inducing moments. Also, thanks to Once, Irish independents (films, not Catholics), have grown in patronage (well, sort of).

Ball Don't Lie
From the mouth of Rasheed Wallace into the popular lexicon of ballers around the world, "ball don't lie" has come a long way. Now, it's a film. Streetball And 1 mainstay, Grayson Boucher, stars as an up-and-coming basketball player in Brin Hill's film. You're thinking Above the Rim (you're not?) and you might not be far off, but isn't streetball due for a cinematic revisit? The supporting cast has a host of underrated performers, including one of the better rappers-turned-actors, Ludacris (see Crash and Hustle and Flow), as well as Nick Cannon ("Nick Cannon is hilarious" -the Chapelle Show) and Bubba himself, Mykelti Williamson.