So Buffalo Bill Could Run

Manhunter: The Final Cut is maybe a misnomer, as the 40th anniversary restoration of Michael Mann's unsettling serial-killer classic is essentially his 2003 Director's Cut with minor trims, extended scenes, and a polarizing color grade that mutes the film's iconic '80s neon and pastels for a more "contemporary" look. Whether that's an upgrade or desecration will fuel nerdy debates, but undebatable is the film's staying power. Without William Petersen's criminal profiler with a haunted obsession, the late Tom Noonan's terrifying, tragic "Tooth Fairy" or Brian Cox as O.G. liver lover Hannibal Lecktor (played with more chilling, clinical realism than Anthony Hopkins), there might not be Se7en or Zodiac.

Over a scrappy web series and two audacious cult TV seasons, Toronto buddies Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll (as "themselves") have put two decades' worth of scheming energy into how to book a live gig at the Rivoli. A simple, insane, faux-doc premise built around hidden cameras, unsuspecting real-world participants and meta movie-loving invention, "Nirvanna the Band the Show" expanded into the funniest movie of the past year: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Still trying to play the same tiny club, the boys' catastrophically backfiring plans (from skydiving to time traveling) present as a heartfelt buddy comedy, a love letter to Drake's hometown, and a mind-blowing magic trick.

"I owe a lot to a dead man's cock," begins Robyn Hitchcock's 25th solo album "The Confuser", the eccentrically witty English troubadour's first release as a septuagenarian (not that you'd ever guess from his familiar, vital charm). A "rockin' dismalia record for rocking dismal times" as he puts it, this jangly psych-pop treat waxes whimsically on mortal decay, the fragility of love, and the preciousness of existence itself. With guest spots from Gillian Welch and his former Soft Boys bandmate Kimberley Rew, Hitchcock's latest hits "louder than a mustache on a face," his surrealist streak as evocative as ever.

Pitching is an Important Filmmaking Skill to Hone. Bonsoir from the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival in gorgeous Montréal, where I'm spending the week at the Frontières market. After a day of pitch sessions, I've noticed a pattern: the genre projects that stick aren't the ones with the most polished decks (and don't get me started on the glut of A.I. generated lookbooks). They're from people you'd want to spend two years of production hell with. In this foolishly risk-averse industry, your first impression is often your only chance. Don't read directly from the PowerPoint slides, we can already see them. Find more meaningful horror comps beyond Get Out, The Substance and The Witch that reflect why you're unique. Your job is to make the people across the table feel excitement, curiosity, a sense of shared possibility. Be energetic, be prepared, be someone they'd want to work with. The story matters, but they're ultimately buying into you.