Kicking the Seat

Ian talks with director Brian Skiba about his latest film, Guns of Redemption!

Casper Van Dien stars as Luke, a post-Civil War-era drifter looking to escape his past in a small town. He befriends a preacher (Sean Astin) and runs afoul of a traveling con man named Bork (Jeff Fahey), whose caravan of booze and games also contains several captive women whom he pimps out to the locals. Following a tragedy, Luke teams up with several of the prisoners to take down Bork and his men--in a modern indie mash-up of Unforgiven and Mad Max: Fury Road.

In this brief interview, Brian Skiba talks about building an authentic Western world in the modern era; working with Casper Van Dien in this surprisingly gritty role; and pulling off one of the coolest shots you're likely to see in any movie this year!

Guns of Redemption is now available On Demand!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Guns of Redemption trailer.

The Oscars may be over, but we're keeping the party going with a live roundtable review of Amadeus--which racked up a symphony of statues 40 years ago!

In Milos Forman's adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play, F. Murray Abraham plays Italian composer Antonio Salieri, whose dreams of musical immortality are shattered when he encounters child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The film opens with Salieri in an asylum, confessing to a priest that he'd killed Mozart years earlier--and much of Amadeus takes us behind the scenes of their tumultuous relationship.

This was a first-time watch for Ian and, as you'll soon see, Amadeus is another one of those "They Should've Just Stopped Making Movies After This Movie" movies. But what do the rest of the EMC think?

Join us as we compose ourselves while talking spoilers and taking your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Amadeus trailer.

• Warner Bros recently released a 4K UHD of the Amadeus theatrical cut, available wherever you pick up movies.

• Watch F. Murray Abraham's moving (and brief!) "Best Actor" acceptance speech at the 1985 Oscars (mentioned in the show).

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

  • And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

Earth's Mightiest Critics don't toy around--even when reviewing Osgood Perkins' The Monkey!

In this (very loose) adaptation of a short story from Stephen King's Skeleton Crew collection, Theo James plays twin brothers Hall and Bill, who, as children, discovered a cursed monkey toy in a closet. When winding the gold key in its back, the spooky little novelty beats its drum...and someone dies! Decades later, after having rid themselves of the evil thing, the monkey shows up to resume its reign of terror!

In what is sure to be one of the podcast's more animated episodes (one critic calls The Monkey a "year's best", another "one of the worst in years"), the gang will get into Perkins' success at bringing the short story to the big screen; the pitfalls of horror/comedy; and how this stacks up to other King adaptations!

Join us as we get wound up talking spoilers and taking your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Monkey trailer.

• Cati filmed Osgood Perkins' recent Q&A at Chicago's historic Music Box Theatre, following a sneak preview of The Monkey. Check it out!

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

  • And stir things up with Will Johnson of the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

Ian and Mark look back on 20 years of Francis Lawrence's Constantine!

At the pre-dawn of our modern comic-book movie era, Warner Bros commissioned a $100 million adaptation of the cult DC Vertigo series, John Constantine: Hellblazer, featuring a sarcastic, chain-smoking British antihero who stalks the rainy streets of London contending with the supernatural.

The resulting film stars a fully Americanized Keanu Reeves fighting the forces of darkness in L.A., accompanied by his spunky chauffeur, Shia LaBeouf. In 2005, lifelong Hellblazer fan Ian was unimpressed and mildly offended. Two decades on, his opinion of the film is markedly different--as is Mark's!

Join us for this wide-ranging, spoilerific review, which also looks at the comics, the short-lived NBC reboot starring Matt Ryan, and the recent news of a possible Constantine sequel--which may find Reeves once again lighting up in that dapper black trenchcoat!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Constantine trailer.

• You can pick up the all-new 4K Ultra HD edition of Constantine from Warner Bros.

• Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

Earth's Mightiest Critics return to kick off the year-long deluge of comic-book movies with a look at Captain America: Brave New World!

Anthony Mackie returns as Sam Wilson, with a newly minted mantle and a global conspiracy to put down. Can he stop the shadowy figure pitting the United States against Japan for control of a mysterious cosmic resource? Can he keep President "Thunderbolt" Ross (Harrison Ford) from losing his temper and turning into the Red Hulk? And just how badly did the handful of reshoots hamper this film's ability to tell a story worthy of the Cap brand?

Join us for super-charged spoiler talk and find out! We'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Captain America: Brave New World trailer.

• As mentioned in the show, Cati filmed Osgood Perkins' recent Q&A at Chicago's historic Music Box Theatre, following a sneak preview of The Monkey (which we reviewed here)!

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • And make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

This month, the Accademia Giallo faculty gets hitched (and stitched) with the matrimonial mayhem of Mario Bava's Hatchet for the Honeymoon!

The 1970 thriller centers on a cleaver-wielding bridal designer who murders various young brides-to-be in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma.

Join us for a stalk down the aisle and a spoilerific trip down memory lane! We'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats! Valentine's Day may be over, but the Honeymoon has just begun!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Hatchet for the Honeymoon trailer.

• Support all of our terrifying teachers' axe-tracurricular activities!

  • Stay studious with Aaron Christensen at Horror101 with Dr. AC!

  • And subscribe to his YouTube channel!

  • If you dare, venture down into Kitley's Krypt with Jon Kitley!

    • And listen to Jon's scary-good podcast, Discover the Horror!

  • Stalk Bryan Martinez in The Giallo Room!

  • Buy J. Blake Fichera's "Scored to Death" Volume I and II on Amazon (mentioned in the show).

    • Catch up with classic episodes of his Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers podcast!

• Continue your education with our "Accademia Giallo" Playlist!

Ian and Pat celebrate Valentine's Day with a candy-coated love-in for Chandler Levack's 2022 coming-of-age comedy, I Like Movies!

Set in 2003,* the film stars Isaiah Lehtinen as Lawrence, a celluloid-obsessed high school student living in Canada, who dreams of studying film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He and his only friend, Matt (Perry Hynes White), make low-budget movies and spend their Saturday Nights watching Saturday Night Live. When Lawrence gets a job at the local video store to save for college, he meets a group of misfit adults--including "cool boss" Alana (Romina D'Ugo), on whom he inevitably develops a crush. This coincides with a series of personal tragedies that force Lawrence into a world he can neither reckon with nor rewind.

In today's spoiler-lite review, the guys dig deep into Levack's phenomenally insightful and painstakingly authentic coming-of-age movie, which borrows from her own youth yet manages to capture the universal awkwardness, isolation, and small triumphs of teen-boydom.

They also veer into Levack's uncanny ability to draw strong female characters in ways that utterly shame the mainstream cliche; tout I Like Movies's similarity to Adam Rehmeier's Dinner in America; and pull each other back from the Inception-like spiral of some of the film's deceptively simple creative choices!

*Ian mistakenly said the movie took place in 2002, but according to the Internet, Punch-Drunk Love didn't hit home video until June of the following year (Paul Thomas Anderson's drama figures heavily in I Like Movies).

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the I Like Movies trailer.

• Read Ian's written review of I Like Movies at Kicking the Seat!

• Check out Ian's recent interview with the cast and filmmaker of Dinner in America (mentioned in the show)!

• Keep up with Pat at HollywoodChicago.com.

• Listen to Pat's movie reviews on the radio at STAR 96.7.

Earth's Mightiest Critics are in love with love--and with creatively cut-up body parts (only in the movies, ya freaks)!

This week's romantic round table review centers on Heart Eyes, Josh Ruben's holiday-themed horror movie about...well, a serial killer whose mask has glowing heart eyes on it! Join us for a sweet and spoilerific dissection of the latest big-screen slasher!

We also talk spoilers and take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Heart Eyes trailer.

• Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:

  • Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.

  • Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.

  • Get seated with The Blonde in Front!

  • Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.

  • Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…

    • ...And Film Obsessive

    • ...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.

  • Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue.

    • ...and We Got This Covered.

  • And make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.

Ian and Sujewa are back with a look at Steve Martini's indie comedy, Bittersweet!

The film premieres this Friday at Regal Gallery Place as part of the DC Independent Film Forum Collection, and centers on an Autistic dad named Sam (Martini) who, through a series of wild events, finds himself embroiled in a nightmarish custody battle. Bittersweet also stars William Baldwin as a sleazy divorce attorney/men's rights activist, who delivers a speech comparable to his brother Alec's "Coffee is for Closers" diatribe from Glengarry Glen Ross!

In this spoiler-lite discussion, the guys dig into Bittersweet's questionable handling of Autism; its strengths as an independent film (comparable in many ways to Vivian Kerr's Scrap); and the age-old debate of an artist's responsibility to their audience--and vice versa!

Plus: Stick around for tips on indie filmmaking using prosumer cameras; Sujewa's anecdote about meeting William Baldwin in the airport; and the birth of "Z-roll"!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Bittersweet trailer.

• If you're in the Washington, DC area this Friday, you can celebrate Valentine's Day with Steve Martini and members of the Bittersweet cast/crew! They'll be on hand for a Q&A following the 8:30pm screening at Regal Gallery Place, as part of the DC Independent Film Forum Collection. Tickets and more info here!

• Revisit our "Most Interesting Indies of 2024" conversation.

• Read the post that inspired this conversation!

• Watch Sujewa's latest film, Cosmic Disco Detective Rene for free on YouTube!

• Rent The Secret Society for Slow Romance (the predecessor to Cosmic Disco Detective Rene).

• Follow Sujewa on X.

• Check out all the episodes in our “IndieSeen” Playlist!

Spotlight India returns with a look at Shoojit Sircar's explosive political action thriller, Madras Cafe!

By popular demand, Ian and Shashwat review the 2013 film, starring John Abraham as Vikram, an Indian secret agent who gets drawn into the Sri Lankan civil war. While pursuing the head of the insurgency, Vikram discovers greater forces at play, which include crooked members of his own agency and a global conspiracy to disrupt and control the entire region.

In this spoilerific review, the guys talk about movies that draw inspiration from real-world strife; the pros and cons of Sircar's exceedingly technical approach to dramatizing geopolitical mechanics; and how one truly great scene can elevate an entire film!

Subscribe, like, and comment on Kicking the Seat here on YouTube, and check us out at:

• kickseat.com

• X

• Letterboxd

• BlueSky

• Instagram

• Facebook

Show Links

• Watch the Madras Cafe (2013) trailer.

• Check out (and subscribe to) the IndieRise YouTube channel!

• Watch Shashwat's documentary, Breaking Barriers, on the IIT Madras BS Film Society YouTube channel!

• Watch Shashwat's short films on YouTube (and be sure to subscribe!).

• Follow IIT Madras BS Film Society on Instagram.

• And catch up with previous "Spotlight India" episodes.