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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.

Lost in London (2017)

There are no stills from Lost in London, only publicity photos and on-set candids. If you missed Fathom Events' live-stream of Woody Harrelson's directorial debut last Thursday, you missed it for good. Someone may put out a home video release down the line, but future audiences will only know the movie as "that thing they shot live". They'll have no context for the collective, cinematic vofreude of watching posterity in progress, where every lighting issue, flub, and happy accident instantly became part of a locked picture. Though the story itself is inconsequential (we've seen one-crazy-night flicks before), the execution suggested influences as disparate as syrupy family sitcoms and Sebastian Schipper's one-and-done thriller, Victoria. Everything might have crashed and burned around Harrelson, had his three-hundred-strong cast and crew not steamrolled every obstacle. In the process, they made a case for bringing people back to theatres by bringing some theatre back to the movies.

Wanna hear Ian and Keeping it Reel's David Fowlie find their way through Lost in London? Check out Kicking the Seat Podcast #189!

20th Century Women (2016)

Patriots Day (2017)