The Seat Struck Movie Podcast

"Mommy's very angry" This week on the show, Curtis and John are joined by recurring guest Grant to discuss a rare Steven Spielberg sequel film, THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK. A rare case of a film based on a book all of us have read, we talk a bit about the Crichton source material and talk the 'Pet Sounds / Sgt Peppers' phenomenon going on with the novels and films. We then...

"If you are truly wild at heart, you'll fight for your dreams.." This week on the podcast, we head back to the David Lynch Watch Series and discuss his beguiling, romantic road crime film: WILD AT HEART! We discuss this film's connection to the book; the very heavy Wizard of Oz references; the amazing Nic Cage/Laura Dern chemistry; the deep roster of Twin Peaks cast cameos; the s...

"Meg's gravy is famous. It's practically a food group." Shine on! This week on the podcast, Curtis and John celebrate the 30th anniversary of an iconic 90s disaster movie: Twister! We discuss this film's long, troubled production cycle; our experiences with this film; John's childhood fear of tornados; Ottawa's recent experiences with tornados and other nasty storms;...

That podcast you like is coming back in style! For the first time in Seat Struck history we're tackling a television series, as we deep dive into David Lynch and Mark Frost's TWIN PEAKS. Joining John and Curtis is an all-star panel of recurring guests: Simon Spiegel, Magill Foote, and Thomas Britt. We jumped right into discussion and covered a deep slate of topics, including: some notes on...

This week we are back on the retroactively titled "John Cassavetes Watch Series", as our recurring Cassavetes scholar returns to discuss his 1968 masterpiece: 1968. Jumping off from Jonathan Rosenbaum's brief review, we talked about the film's reaction to the "so-called sexual revolution"; (upper) middle class ennui; the film's detailed production history and long e...

Curtis, John, and Magill FOOTE are BACK for the latest David Lynch watch series entry: 1987's bizarro BLUE VELVET, starring Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Brad Dourif, and Isabella Rossellini. The boys discuss the latest news and what they watched before diving into the film. Hot topics include its links to TWIN PEAKS, the psychosexual aspects, the weirdness, and its place in Lynch's...

Curtis, John, and special guest (and cyberpunk scholar) Dr Anna McFarlane (University of Glasgow) do a deep dive this week into Abel Ferrara's often underlooked NEW ROSE HOTEL (1998), which is adapted from cyberpunk wizard William Gibson's short story in Burning Chrome and stars Asia Argento, Willem Dafoe, and Christopher Walken. The gang discusses the differences between the story andthe...

" You may be a one-eyed jack around here, but I've seen the other side of your face " This week we continue the long-awaited follow up entry in our 'Movies By Actors' series by discussing Marlon Brando's sole directorial feature: ONE-EYED JACKS. We go over the troubled pre-production of this film, and the events which led to Brando taking the reins. We discuss his perform...

"The sleeper has awakened." This week we continue our David Lynch Watch Series and discuss his third feature, DUNE. Curtis is away, but we're pleased to be joined again by Simon and our recurring sibling guest, Billy. Considered a bête noire in the Lynch canon—we all sort of made the case for why we kind of like this surreal, industrial, grandiose, yet messy sci-fi epic. We also went...

"Who's in here? NO ONE!" This week, John Valley, Curtis, and special guest Dr John Bruni honour the legacy of beloved director Rob Reiner with a deep dive into THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984), his first film and arguably the best rockumentary of all time! The boys discuss what they watched this week before diving into the film, talking about its many points of satire, rock celebrity cultur...

"My life is full because I know I am loved." This week we continue our David Lynch Watch Series and discuss his second feature, THE ELEPHANT MAN. Joining us again for the discussion is recurring guest GRANT! We went over some background on this film's origins before getting into a larger discussion on the story. We touch on the historical accuracies (and inaccuracies), the warmth and...

"In Heaven Everything is fine You got your good things And I've got mine" Salutations, loyal Seat Struck listeners. This week we're proud to kick off our long anticipated DAVID LYNCH WATCH SERIES, starting with an introduction to the filmmaker and then chatting about his debut, avant-garde body horror: ERASERHEAD. Joining John and Curtis for the discussion is Dr. Simon Spiegel, a...

“Preacher? That motherfucker got God and technology ass/backwards! He’ll kill anybody for money just to keep his body full of implants!” J-Bone Curtis, John, and Simon team up for 1995's JOHNNY MNEMONIC, the pre-MATRIX cyberpunk adaptation of William Gibson's short story starring Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Henry Rollins, Ice T, Dolph Lundgren, and Takeshi Kitano. The boys discuss what they...

The Sofia Coppola watch series concludes this week as John and Curtis take on PRISCILLA, Coppola's latest feature-length film starring Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley and Jacob Elordi as the King. The lads discuss what they watched this week before diving into the film discussion. Hot topics include Elvis's secondary role in the film, DODGER, the Presley family's response to the fil...

(Minus Marty Supreme, which I saw a couple of days after I recorded this lol). Enjoy this piece of year-end bonus content—the audio minisode of my Best of 2025. Here's my Letterboxd list for reference: https://letterboxd.com/johnnycakes91/list/best-of-2025/

Happy Holidays! As everyone winds down for end of the year celebrations, we decided to gather a special SUPERGROUP for a discussion on FOUND FOOTAGE MOVIES. Curtis is back from Japan, and joining the boys are our recurring guests MAGILL and TOMMY BRITT, and special guest RICHARD WATERS, a filmmaker from Ireland most known for his found footage horrors (IN A STRANGER'S HOUSE, DISTORT). With the...

This week on the pod, special guest John Bruni returns to discuss a Robert Redford vehicle—the political satire film THE CANDIDATE. We had a long discussion on Redford's performance, how the film's satire has aged, whether McKay is a sympathetic character, and also consider this film in comparison to D.A. Pennebaker's Election and The War Room, and through Andrew Sarris' pointed, yet somewhat blin...

With Curtis still away, John was joined by Magill to partake in what might be the most self-indulgent episode yet: a discussion on Turner Clay's THE BLACKWELL GHOST series of films (which as of this release is up to eight films, with a ninth on the way). While this discussion was about the filmmaker, the verisimilitude of its presentation, and the ever expanding lore, we did spend a lot of time ta...

"Clara was one in a million. One in a billion. One in a googolplex!" With Curtis away in Japan, John is once again joined by his brother Billy for a 100% sibling pod, going over the final entry in the Back to the Future trilogy. They run down the events of the movie, talk about the production, how this holds up as a Western, and whether this is a better movie (or worse) than Part II. Bef...

Frights, camera, action! For the final outing of spooky season, Curtis and John take on Zach Cregger's WEAPONS (2025), starring Julia Garner, Amy Madigan, and Josh Brolin, alongside special guests Magill and Dr Thomas Britt. The boys discussed what they watched this week before diving into the film discussion. Hot topics include the "comedic" aspects of the film, parasitism, the mult...

And now, a little something to make your skin crawl! For the third entry of spooky season, Simon and Curtis discuss the period piece body horror THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025) with special guest Dr Sean Travers. They chat about its connections to THE SUBSTANCE (2024) and GRAFTED (2024), literal and metaphorical parasites, the monstrosity of the transformed body, the pressures of patriarchal expectatio...

Pleasant screams, boils and ghouls! John and Curtis return to the spooky canon this week for its second screamy offering: 1972's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING, directed by Lucio Fulci and starring Barbara Bouchet (and one of Curtis's giallo favourites). The boys are also joined by their favourite librarian, the very hot and cool Katie! They discuss the film as giallo, libraries, the rural s...

Hello, boils and ghouls! October is here, which means we kick off the first entry in our fourth annual SPOOKY CANON MONTH! We will return to our weekly cadence to cover our favourite horror films every week. For my pick, we discuss the inimitable 2021 stop-motion classic, by famed special effects guru Phil Tippett: MAD GOD! Joining Curtis and John for this discussion is our long-time recurring gue...

"I don't know why we do this" After doing a few episodes of the works of John Casavettes, we felt it was time to go back to the start to discuss his 1959 low-budget debut: SHADOWS! Joining John for this discuss is our recurring guest John Bruni, who also wrote a recent article on this film (linked below). With reference to that article, we also discussed the background on the film's production, th...

We've finally reached the penultimate Coppola film (at least, until her new Marc Jacobs documentary gets distribution), the 2020 A24/Apple TV+ release: ON THE ROCKS! We discuss the performances by leads, the emotional material this film touches on, our shared gripes, and we get into some extended talk on Bill Murray and the #MeToo movement. Before that, we went over the usual news and what we...