Recommendations for June

It’s been a burgeoning summer unfolding before me and with that I’ve been busy with work and travel and learning and seeing friends and family.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have time for more art recommendations to share! So, without further ado, here they are:

Film:

Dark Waters (2019). Dir. Todd Haynes

I’ve been in an investigative journalism/legal procedural mood recently and finally got around to watching Todd Haynes’ 2019 based-on-a-true-story film Dark Waters. Starring Mark Ruffalo in a role which reprises many of his mannerisms from Spotlight, he plays a lawyer delving into a two decade long legal battle against DuPont Chemical and the role of forever chemicals.

Shot in Haynes typical style of restraint–with limited camera movements, layered framing, and a focus on narrative over style–he bring into the film a general sense of dread and anxiety (akin almost to how Fincher shot Zodiac in 2007).

It’s a great legal drama and one that would make a great (though very stressful) double feature with Michael Mann’s The Insider. Find out where to watch it here.

Music:

Long Season – Fishmans

Is this a single song? It’s length says no. Is it an album? The number of tracks would say otherwise. Yet ‘Long Season’ by the Japanese indie rock band Fishmans straddles between these two, being a song and an entire album at the same time. It’s most certainly not a jam session, though the 35 plus minute long song would say otherwise. It’s a trippy, meandering, and wonderful song that evolves over such a long time yet rarely feels over long.

Pitchfork describes the song as “the 1996 magnum opus of Japanese rock band Fishmans,” and says that the song is “a landmark of Japanese rock that fits a lifetime of aspirations and daydreams into a single 35-minute composition.” If that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know quite how else to.

As for listening to it, it’s on Spotify and other streaming services, though I recommend listening to one of the live performances on YouTube. The band historically always tried to make the song unique to the performance when playing it live and it’s so evident to see their love for the song and for performing when watching.

That’s all for now…

Keeping it simple and light with two recommendations for this month. Summer is upon us, so enjoy it. And hopefully I’ll keep this up and not miss a month again.