profile pic ian.jpg

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.

Ep720: Page2Screen2Screen2Screen: DUNE

Ep720: Page2Screen2Screen2Screen: DUNE

Ian Simmons

Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives...reading and watching lots and lots of Dune!

“Page2Screen” returns with our biggest episode yet, wherein Ian and Cole compare and contrast Frank Herbert's seminal 1965 fantasy novel, David Lynch's 1984 adaptation, Denis Villeneuve's recently released telling, and the 2013 documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, which details the collapse of a wildly ambitious (and oddly influential) early-70s big-screen attempt!

The guys delve into what makes Herbert's work so immersive; why it's been a tricky property to translate from static words to motion pictures; and how each cinematic interpretation brings something wonderful to the table--in wildly varying degrees.

Show Links:

  • Watch the Dune (2021) trailer.

  • Watch the Dune (1984) trailer.

  • Watch the Jodorowsky’s Dune trailer.

  • Keep up with all of Cole's literary criticism at The Quill to Live.

  • Check out Cole's TikTok channel, BookRush.

  • And if you're looking for a sand-blast from the past, watch Ian talk about David Lynch's Dune with Sujewa Ekanayake and Mike Crowley on this 2020 episode of "The Slowdown".

  • Subscribe to, like, and comment on the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel!

Scare-a-Thon 2021: THE FLY (1986)

Scare-a-Thon 2021: THE FLY (1986)
Ep719: IndieSeen: THE SECRET SOCIETY FOR SLOW ROMANCE

Ep719: IndieSeen: THE SECRET SOCIETY FOR SLOW ROMANCE