Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

Filmmaker Natalie Erika James makes honest portraits of pain. With her showstopper of a debut, Relic, and her latest picture, Saccharine, James turns supernatural scares into relatable nightmares. There’s a beating, albeit perhaps charred and decayed, heart and spirit to her horror.  “What’s presented is jarring, troubling, and grotesque, all based around unhealthy conversations about society’s mirror-gazing obsession,” Matt Donato wrote in his review of the film. It stars Midori Francis (Unseen) as a medical student who consumes ash to lose weight. Her poor choice brings about an unwelcomed haunting.  Saccharine isn’t only scary but often a tongue-in-cheek – as…

Whether we realize it or not, we all have ideas about what we feel. We even have notions about whether we’re capable of controlling our emotions and if we’re supposed to do so.

Joe Dante’s Homecoming (2005) doesn’t even *try* to mask its political intentions.Homecoming is a Masters of Horror outing well worth revisitingHomecoming is a movie that requires context … and a lot of it.The Masters of Horror episode — basically, a 59-minute, standalone almost feature film — first aired in December 2005, although it wouldn’t hit DVD until July 2006. If you weren’t alive back then (or cognizant of U.S. foreign policy at the time) you’re not going to grasp the full intent of Joe Dante’s mini-movie. It was a reactionary movie about an incredibly contentious political issue and possibly the only…

When I was small, my American-ness rubbed up against my Hui-ness. I remember remarking to my dad that life was always going to be unfair for me, and loads of other people never had it as hard as I did. My dad was quick to point out my faulty thinking and my use of words like always, never, and forever. “Why do you use these words?” he asked. “Some days are hard, and some days are not, for all people.” Then he sat at the kitchen table, sipping his tea as if he were a monk sitting cross-legged on a…

Kyle Gallner has officially signed on to join Brie Larson in Skeletons, the upcoming creature feature from director JT Mollner and producer J.J. Abrams. This reunites Gallner with Mollner for the first time since Strange Darling, and if you spent any part of 2024 trying to explain that film to everyone who had not seen it yet, this one is already on your list. Sony Pictures picked up worldwide rights at the European Film Market earlier this year in a deal landing north of $25 million before a single day of filming. The screenplay comes from Brian Duffield, based on…

Your inbox likely contains various emails this month on mental health awareness. How do you distinguish between useful and unhelpful information? Not everything labeled “helpful advice” truly offers value. To understand what it means to be emotionally well-balanced under pressure, we need a clear framework that goes beyond superficial tips. Journalists interested in the use of TikTok to dispense mental health advice recently asked a panel of mental health experts about the advice that was provided on the platform. The experts concluded that over half of the information on TikTok about mental health was incorrect. If that were not concerning…

Following the very successful release of the Exquisite Corpses comic book series, Tiny Onion has fully unveiled Exquisite Corpses: The Game, a “Social Strategy Battle Royale Tabletop Card Game,” based on the world of the comics. Easy to pick up, but expansive enough that no two games are the same and strategies can differ wildly between players, I’m excited to get my hands on this game as soon as I can. Thankfully, I won’t have to wait too long, as the Kickstarter campaign for this game was successfully funded in less than a day. The successful campaign is now working…

Understanding how breathwork, specifically the Sudarshan Kriya Yoga – RP (also known as SKY Breath and related practices) regulates stress requires a look into its effects on the body’s hormonal and neuroendocrine systems. In addition to directly interacting with the sympathetic nervous system (which activates the body’s fight-or-flight response) and the opposite parasympathetic nervous system (slowing the body down, restoring calm, and supporting recovery, healing, and long-term resilience) as discussed in a previous post, breathing is also tied to other hormone-regulating systems.[1] Also key to this process is the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, which governs the release of stress hormones such…

Ghostface is already coming back.After slicing through theaters earlier this year, Scream 7 is heading to Paramount+ on May 28, giving horror fans another excuse to lock their doors, ignore unknown callers, and pretend they are not going to immediately hit play at 2 a.m.The latest entry in the long running meta slasher franchise marks a major full circle moment for the series because Kevin Williamson, the writer who created Scream back in 1996, stepped into the director’s chair this time around. If you grew up memorizing Randy’s rules for surviving a horror movie or arguing over which Ghostface reveal…

Many couples today exist in a state of near-continuous contact—shared calendars, location sharing, constant texting, and overlapping friend groups. In many ways, this closeness is exactly what we want from a committed relationship. Emotional intimacy and responsiveness are genuine predictors of relationship health. Feeling understood and securely connected benefits both mental and physical well-being. But research is beginning to reveal a more complicated picture, one with direct implications for sexual desire. The conventional wisdom has long been that more closeness equals better relationships. And for many outcomes, that holds. On days when people feel closer to their partner, they also…