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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.

Ep489: Sled Hammer

Today, the Kicking the Seat Podcast and Keeping it Reel's David Fowlie enter new territory with a look at Disney Plus' family-friendly historical adventure Togo. Willem Dafoe and Julianne Nicholson star in the real-life story of a musher living in 1920s Alaska, who must brave a brutal storm with his faithful sled dogs in order to bring diphtheria medicine back to his ailing town.

David liked the film; Ian didn't. But far from being a combative episode, this conversation digs into the ways in which a movie can be well-crafted and enjoyable to most people--while failing to connect with someone who really wants to love it.

Episode 489 gets all mushy!

Show Guide:

Intro Music: 0:00 - 0:14

Intro: 0:14 - 2:21

Togo Trailer: 2:21 - 4:38

Togo Discussion: 4:38 - 38:37

Outro Music: 38:37 - 38:53

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Ep490: The Slowdown: My Dinner with BOONMEE

Ep488: Forego and Forget