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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 Noé, Rachel Brosnahan, Amy 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.

Ep646: Late Screening: TAXI DRIVER

Ep646: Late Screening: TAXI DRIVER

Ian Simmons

Yeah, we're talkin' to you! This month's "Late Screening" takes Ian and Cole on a wild ride through the mean streets of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

The iconic, gritty drama turns 45 this year, but its relevance as a film and as a hard-hitting societal critique is as striking as ever. Robert DeNiro stars as Travis Bickle, a disturbed Viet Nam vet whose social alienation, political disillusionment, and disgust at societal decay erupts in one of cinema's most unsettling climaxes.

This was a first-time watch for Cole, and the first time Ian had watched Taxi Driver through adult eyes. Watch as the guys lament DeNiro's lack of electricity in future roles; marvel at Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader's ability to elicit complicated sympathies for a monster, and plant the seeds for the Clarice Starling Cinematic Universe (it'll all make sense by the end)!

Show Links:

Ep647: The Slowdown: Where We Started with Zack Snyder's Waking Life

Ep647: The Slowdown: Where We Started with Zack Snyder's Waking Life
Ep645: ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE Movie Review (Spoilers)

Ep645: ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE Movie Review (Spoilers)