The Calcopia Podcast

Movie Time! Critical Rejection: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)

It’s Calcopia’s Movie Time! Podcast! Listen as movie nerds Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans deep dive into their favorite films and cinematic scenes for your listening delight. Timed to celebrate 40 years of Super Mario Bros, we’re booting up Illumination and Nintendo’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie [https://calcopia.com/the-super-mario-galaxy-movie-2026/], the sequel to 2023’s blockbuster that signaled there was a new animation champion in Hollywood. For a character who started off in 1981’s Donkey Kong (when he was just a lowly carpenter), that’s quite an adventure. But critical reception has been much more divided this time around, which leads to an epic chat about whether so-so reviews matter for ready-made hits like this. Listen as the two plumb the deepest depths of the Mushroom Kingdom as they take on one of the year’s biggest blockbusters that may signal the arrival the Nintendo Cinematic Universe is upon us. You’ll also learn how Nintendo’s mascot owes most of his existence to Popeye, if Galaxy is really a Princess Peach origin story, if Fox McCloud really is the coolest dude, the undeniable comparisons of Nintendo to Disney (the company), and how even the most beloved franchises may have their limits.

Cartoonist Steve Lafler Talks Adapting Paul Theroux in Crazy For You

Joining our own Nate Evans on this picturesque episode is legendary cartoonist and illustrator Steve Lafler to talk about his latest book, Crazy For You [https://calcopia.com/crazy-for-you-2026/], where he adapts and illustrates two short stories by acclaimed travel, novelist, and fellow storyteller Paul Theroux (The Old Patagonian Express, The Mosquito Coast) into one highly buyable volume from Fantagraphics. The two chat how how his collaboration with Theroux came to be, and how the two stories in Crazy For You, Minor Watt and Siamese Nights (taken from Theroux’s 2014 collection Mr. Bones), were prime for a visual reinvention. Also discussed are why comics are perfect medium for short stories, translating narratively complex material, rocking out in Mexico, why commercial illustration isn’t a dirty term, being compared to fellow underground comic legends Robert Crumb and Harvey Pekar, the politics of transgressive material and much more. Crazy For You is available now in bookstores and libraries everywhere. Want more Steve Lafler? Check out his official site stevelafler.com [http://stevelafler.com/]

Author and Film Historian John Malahy Talks Rewinding the 80s

Joining our cinematic latchkey kids Nate Evans and Ethan Brehm on this totally tubular episode is author and film historian John Malahy [https://letterboxd.com/johnmalahy/] to talk about his new book, Rewinding The ’80s: Cinema Under the Influence of Music Videos, Action Stars, and a Cold War, a look at not just some of the most popular and influential films from the “decade of excess”, but also makes a strong argument why the decade deserves a cinematic second look. The trio deep dive into some of the best and most notable films the 80s had to offer, tracing how the melancholy of 1970s New Hollywood led to a new wave of optimism in Hollywood spectacle (and success) like never before. Also discussed is how the emergence of VHS and cable TV helped create a revolution in genre diversity and indie film distribution (and popularity), the elevation of teen cinema, the importance of merchandising, and the lack of watercooler moments as cultural touchstones. Did 1980s nostalgia actually begin in the 1980s? Did Rocky end the Cold War? (spoiler: yes!) Will Hollywood ever stop remaking, rebooting, and rehashing the decade’s most recognizable IP? These questions and more will be answered – or at least vigorously discussed!

Movie Time! The Best, Worst, and Everything Else Movies of 2025

It’s Calcopia’s Movie Time! Podcast…for 2025! Regular hosts Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans are joined by fellow cinephiles Susana Bojorquez and Brian Kwayi in a spectacular, outrageously long episode overstuffed and ready to explode with everything about the movies they loved, liked, and loathed in a year filled with movie magic. Did your favorites (or stinkers) make the list? Ours include: Freaky Tales [https://calcopia.com/freaky-tales-2025-perfectly-captures-the-enigma-and-weirdness-of-the-bay-area/], One Battle After Another [https://calcopia.com/one-battle-after-another-2025/], Eddington, No Other Choice [https://calcopia.com/no-other-choice-2025/], Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Rental Family [https://calcopia.com/rental-family-2025/], Hamnet, Sinners, Tron: Ares [https://calcopia.com/tron-ares-2025/], 28 Years Later, Marty Supreme, Bugonia, Play Dirty, Avatar: Fire and Ash [https://calcopia.com/avatar-fire-and-ash-2025/], Frankenstein, Ballerina, Good Fortune, Sentimental Value, The Naked Gun, Superman, KPop Demon Hunters, The Toxic Avenger, [https://calcopia.com/the-toxic-avenger-unrated-2025/] Weapons, and many others. Listen now – and don’t forget to take breaks!

Author Stephen Rebello Talks Criss-Cross and Why Hitchcock Still Matters

Joining our resident cinephiles Nate Evans and Ethan Brehm on this cinematic episode is author Stephen Rebello, whose 1990 ‘Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho’ is widely considered the definitive journal of one of the most beloved films of all-time. After 35 years he returns to The Master of Suspense with the meticulously researched Criss-Cross – The Making of Hitchcock’s Dazzling, Subversive Masterpiece Strangers of a Train, chronicling the director’s 1951 classic adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel of chance, opportunity, and – of course – madness. Listen as the trio discuss the difficulties bringing Highsmith’s book to film (and writing a book about making a film), how women helped salvage the project, why humor and tension work well together, the importance of cinematographer Robert Burks, the fallacy of the auteur theory, subtext and subtlety in an age of cinematic suppression, why Strangers pairs perfectly with 1954’s Dial M for Murder, and why Alfred Hitchcock continues to matter.