Last week, visit #151 extended the honor and brought another bold adaptation of a literary classic to the roundtable. This time, it was Emerald Fennell’s spicy take on Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights.” Enjoy the divisive back and forth between Ian, myself, Cati Glidewell of The Blonde in Front, Mike Crowley of You’ll Probably Agree, and Jeff York of The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.
Read MoreEveryone who grew up with pets knows that they can teach us a lot about life. If we pay close attention, we see that the way we look at them often reflects our own inner demons, beliefs, and insecurities. Pets also show us what loyalty looks like in its purest form. At the same time, they can reveal how easily we grow overly attached, or where our ability to connect with others starts to falter.
Read MoreThere have been too many Dracula movies. In fact, there have been over 200. Personally, I think they’ve been tough acts to follow since Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. Coming from Frenchman Luc Besson, 2026 brings the closest—and most romance-forward—Dracula since Coppols. Join Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel hosting myself and Cati Glidewell of The Blonde in Front to talk all about Caleb Landry Jones and company in Dracula.
Read MoreContinuing to plod through “awards season,” Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel circled Bradley Cooper’s newest directorial effort, Is This Thing On?. The dramedy follows a separated married couple played by Will Arnett and Laura Dern as they find new outlets while single, including standup comedy.
Read MoreKicking-off their tenth year in style, the Chicago Indie Critics (CIC) have announced the nominees for their 9th annual 2025 Windie Awards. The 38 voting film critic members completed ballots this week to select Windie nominees in 27 categories. The CIC members will commence a final round of voting ending on January 10, 2026. The 2025 Windie Award winners will be announced internally at a private members-only party at Blue Bayou Chicago.
Read MoreDiving into the physical media front, Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel sought to cover Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 classic Boogie Nights. Several critics, including myself and Ian, received the new 4K-UHD disc edition of the film and took that opportunity to talk as cleanly as possible for YouTube censors, PTA’s ins-and-outs of the 1970s and 1980s porn scene of southern California.
Read MoreIn an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year. Here’s the report from 2005!
Read MoreIn an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year. When measuring back as far as twenty years or more, I feel like “favorites” that have stood the test of time have aged to become some level of “best.” I feel like a bunch of those populate my reflective look back at the best of 2005.
Read MoreIn an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year. Here’s the report from 2004 (one year later than 20)!
Read MoreIn an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year. When measuring back as far as twenty years or more, I feel like “favorites” that have stood the test of time have aged to become some level of “best.” I feel like a bunch of those populate my reflective look back at the best of 2004.
Read MoreEvery week, Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel is looking for something like that, and he sure found one this week, just in time for Christmas. The movie in question is the crowd-pleasing, toe-tapping, and heart-moving Song Sung Blue, the musical biopic—not of Neil Diamond—but of a Wisconsin-based Neil Diamond tribute band starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.
Read MoreIan Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast and YouTube channel was among the Chicago press who got the chance to see James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash multiple weeks early. Since he (and the rest of us for that matter) didn’t want to completely forget a completely forgettable movie, Ian assembled “Earth’s Mightiest Critics” to pre-record a “live” roundtable for the movie’s big release this weekend. Enjoy Ian, myself, Jeff York of The Establishing Shot, Mike Crowley of You’ll Probably Agree, and Cati Glidewell of The Blonde in Front talking about all things ashy and blue.
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