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 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.

Home Again (2017)

Forget popcorn; my favorite movie treat is buttery, delicious irony. Last Saturday was date night and, at first glance, Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s Home Again (which I can’t stop calling “Coming Home”), was custom-built for these rare occasions. It’s pure escapist fantasy, featuring a likeable movie star/protagonist (Reese Witherspoon) navigating a post-separation fling with a younger guy (Pico Alexander) against a series of cozy, sun-kissed backdrops, all created in Pier One’s image. Stop your eye-rolling and ditch the chick-flick checklist:deep (deep) down, Home Again contains a better movie about three idealistic millennial filmmakers obsessed with old Hollywood, and their run-ins with clueless development execs. Zippy tangents like these, plus “Halloween” Dean Cundey’s luscious, too-good-for-this-fluff cinematography, make the film appreciable on unexpected levels that belie its cotton candy marketing campaign. I kinda loved this movie, for all the wrong reasons. My wife hated it, for all the right ones. That’s irony, extra salt.

Signature Move (2017)

The Tiger Hunter (2017)