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.

The Lego Batman Movie (2017)

The DC Extended Universe is over. I'm sure Wonder Woman and The Justice League will meet the basic criteria for being called “movies”, but Lego Batman steps to the fore in such spectacular and definitive fashion that it’s time for Zack Snyder, Geoff Johns, and the rest of the grim-'n-gritty gang to pack it in. Director Chris McKay and head writer Seth Grahame-Smith inject real purpose into their dazzling building-brick adventure, steering clear of the overly precious and misguided quirk-storm that was 2014’s surprise hit, The Lego Movie.* They mine every incarnation of the Caped Crusader’s history, creating a mind-boggling meta-continuity and a complex protagonist whose greatest enemy doesn’t wear clown makeup. The film has more gags and in-jokes than our hero has Batarangs, but beneath the silliness is a beautiful lesson about the fundamental need for human connection that left me weeping like a newly orphaned child.

*Yes, I’m one of those people.

Listen to Kicking the Seat Podcast #196 for a Dark Knight deep-dive with Ian and Keeping it Reel's David Fowlie!

Unbroken Glass (2016)

Toni Erdmann (2016)