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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.

Ep11: 12:30am with Neal and Dave Fischer!

Happy New Year! Like everything else on this site, that salutation is really, really late. But don't hold that against me--or against my guests: Neal Fischer, director of Once Upon a Rom-Com: The Bill Pullman Story, and his brother, Dave Fischer, creator of the video game blog Random Slice of Gaming. We sat down last week to talk about Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, mere moments after watching the film.

A nutty schedule kept me from posting this sooner, and I get into that a bit during the intro. Feel free to skip right past that first thirty minutes and head straight into the conversation. I'm not gonna stop you from listening to my scattered thoughts on movies, which are buried under layers of personal complaints, odd plugs for Dave Ramsey's financial programs, and an off-the-cuff love letter to the iPhone. But if you press "Play" with the hope that my diatribes have gotten tighter, I humbly thank you for the faith and regretfully send it back, unwarranted.

Enjoy!

Ep12: Don Coscarelli / Kicking the Seat Dies at the End

Ep10: Rooting out "Life of Pi" with Matt Lazar!