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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.

Ep320: 23 and Meh

Today, the Kicking the Seat Podcast and David Fowlie of Keeping it Reel talk about Ari Aster's highly anticipated horror movie, Hereditary! What happens when an enigmatic matriarch dies, leaving behind clues to sinister family secrets? Lots of melodrama and creepy-kid shenanigans, it turns out.

The guys dive deep into their issues with a film that could have been a real genre-bending spectacle, but which, in their not-so-humble opinions, fails to live up to the pre-release hype. They agree that Toni Collette is an acting deity, though--one who's slumming it in an uneven, often hilarious, and oh-so-frustrating examination of headless closet skeletons.

Episode 320 burnt its family tree to fend off them witches!

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Ep321: Alden Times

Ep319: Dark Knight of the Solstice: BATMAN BEGINS