We’re due for the annual complaints about a lack of strong female characters in movies. Before Wonder Woman shattered the glass box office, viewers had to settle for the 2.0 Ghostbusters. By then, Furiosa and Katniss Everdeen barely qualified as memories (see also Ellen Ripley, Laurie Strode, Leia Organa, and the countless invisibles stuck in Genre Jail). Some blame a lack of movie-history knowledge. I wonder if some types of films featuring bold, front-and-center females are less likely to draw that segment of moviegoers. Candyman stars Tony Todd as the murderous, hook-handed manifestation of a Chicago urban legend. But this is Virginia Madsen’s show, through and through. Her Helen Lyle was brilliant, tough, and fearless a quarter-century before those became mere marketing adjectives. Helen's quest for truth leads to a bloody upstaging of the guy on the poster, offering a sterling refutation to arguments that grow sillier by the year.
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.