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Welcome to Kicking the Seat!

Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).

The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar NoéRachel BrosnahanAmy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.

Ep198: Down the Well of WELLNESS

Never let it be said that the Kicking the Seat Podcast is not committed--or at least that it should be. Today, Ian locks himself in a cinematic asylum with AMovieGuy.com's Leo Brady to discuss two nutty works by director Gore Verbinski. A Cure for Wellness failed to make an impact in 2017, but the blue-hued institutional thriller is similar to a film celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year: 2002's J-Horror mega-hit, The Ring.

Is there more to A Cure for Wellness than critics and audiences gave it credit for, or is there just too much madness (and too much movie) to latch onto? Is this Verbinski's last strike before a harsh movie-jail sentence? And what does a film about killer eels and incest have in common with a haunted-VHS-tapes thriller? The connections may surprise you.

Also, Ian reminds listeners about Asian Pop-Up Cinema's fourth season, which kicked off last night with the American premiere of Shinobu Yaguchi's Survival Family. You can read Mr. Yaguchi's interview with friend of the show Patrick "The Über Critic" McDonald at HollywoodChicago.com.

Episode 198 is the second in our series of anniversary-themed film pairings, which, as this installment proves, might just be crazy enough to work!

You can keep up with the latest seat-kicking goodness by following, liking, rating, and subscribing to us on TwitterFacebookiTunes, and Stitcher!

Ep199: The LOGAN Act

Ep197: The Race Oscars