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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.

Ep291: OPERAtunity Knocks

Today, the Kicking the Seat Podcast puts on its ballet slippers and heads to the opera with Aaron Christensen of Horror 101 with Dr. A.C. and special guest Jason Coffman of Daily Grindhouse! In 2017, Dario Argento's horror films Suspiria and Opera turned forty and thirty years old, respectively. Aaron and Jason walk Ian through his burgeoning appreciation for Argento's brand of Italian horror with a look back at both movies--along with recommendations for continuing his education (turns out even super-fans acknowledge some stinkers in the maestro's filmography).

Also, the guys talk about Jason's massive (and massively entertaining) new book, The Unrepentant Cinephile, which collects decades of online film criticism into one easy-to-reference, hard-to-put-down tome (Aaron wrote the book's intro, as well).

And Ian continues his quest to unseat Howard Stern as the "King of All Media", thanks to guest appearances on the Fresh Perspective Podcast (in which he talks There Will Be Blood with Rebecca Martin and David Fowlie), and YouTube's You'll Probably Agree (where he breaks down the recently announced "Best Picture" Oscar contenders with Mike Crowley and Pat McDonald)!

Episode 291 can't look away!

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Ep292: Age and Perfection

Ep290: Plated and Floored