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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.

Ep232: Two Films and a Controversy / Ana Lily Amirpour Pt. 1

Today, the Kicking the Seat Podcast begins a two-part look at the feature films of writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour, whose latest, The Bad Batch, opens this Friday at Chicago's Music Box Theatre. Ian sat down with Keeping it Reel's David Fowlie and local cinematographer Demetri Kouvalis for a discussion of the contemporary-apocalypse thriller, as well as Amirpour's 2014 debut--a black-and-white-vampire-Farsi-fantasy called A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.

In addition to the movies themselves, the guys talk about a minor social media controversy that erupted two weeks ago, during Amirpour's Q&A at a special Music Box screening. David and Demetri witnessed the incident, in which an audience member accused Amirpour of having made a racist film, right before leaving in disgust. It's perfect fodder for a diner discussion of racism, art, and the theatrics of public outrage.

Also, Ian calls out a particularly ill-conceived Bad Batch review from the reactionary hipsters at smadamproductions.com, and shares info on a couple of local Chicago premieres for Demetri's new movie, Heavens to Betsy (which he shot for writer/director Robert Alaniz).

Join us on Friday for Part Two, which features Ian's interview with Ana Lily Amirpour about movies, comics, and social commentary in art.

Episode 232 will skin you alive (figuratively speaking)!

Ep233: Amirpour de Force / Ana Lily Amirpour Pt. 2

Ep231: Back on Track