'In Restless Dreams' may be the definitive Paul Simon documentary

In January 2019, Paul Simon woke up from a dream. Some voice in his head had informed him, deep in his REM cycle, that he was to work on a project called “Seven Psalms.” The singer-songwriter behind “The Sound of Silence,” “A Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” “Love Me Like a Rock” and several dozen other songs that have probably been part of your life's soundtrack, intentionally or not, had essentially retired for several years. Musically, he had nothing on deck except for this great little riff that he played on his acoustic guitar around his house in Wimberly, Texas. He had no idea what the phrase meant or why he had to work on anything.

However, in the middle of the night, he got up and wrote the “Seven Psalms” on a piece of paper. And gradually, bits and pieces of what he called “information” came to him. Lyrical fragments. Melodies. The use of strange sounds, ranging from cloud chamber bowls to glockenspiel. A notion that spirituality, creativity, and human history, as well as mortality, were somehow intertwined. Simon invited an engineer and old friends like Wynton Marsalis into his Wimberly home studio to help him turn a cryptic string of words into what would become his 15th solo album. He then invited documentarian Alex Gibney to come down and document the making of what may or may not be his final record.

If In Restless Dreams was nothing more than the creation of this haunting, moving collection by one of our greatest living songwriters – a kind of sumptuous writing – it would still be a fascinating look at an artist approaching a project late, grappling with themes and preoccupations that teasing for most of his career. Instead, we get a two-part documentary that also weaves in the highs and lows of this career, refracting Seven Psalms through nearly seven decades of music. It's a journey down a long winding road with the only boy alive in New York, starting in Queens, bypassing Jamaica, Hollywood, South Africa and Brazil, and slowly leading you to a small cabin in the center of Lone Star condition. What is this quote about the journey being more important than the destination?

A prolific filmmaker working on everything from documentaries to first-person Date-style exhibitions, social issue film journalism in artist portraits (Sinatra, Hunter S. Thompson, James Brown), Alex Gibney is nothing if not an old pro at this sort of thing. It doesn't have style as much as modes, and thankfully, it's stuck in a straighter profile role here. the chronology may bounce back and forth, but the focus remains firmly on the subject. Subtitled “The Music of Paul Simon”, In Restless Dreams He also keeps his eyes on the output, involving his personal stuff primarily when it comes to what was going on with Simon's writing and recording. That means we see, say, his whirlwind marriage to Carrie Fisher mostly through the 1983 recording Hearts and bones? Yes. Is there still enough opportunity to hear Simon talk about Art Garfunkel (and vice versa) in vintage clips, interviews and televised debates over the years? Oh yes, indeed.

The original episode, which premiered March 17 on MGM+ and is titled “Verse 1,” covers everything up to his eventual breakup with Garfunkel. (“Verse 2,” the second episode, airs March 24.) Childhood friendship, Tom & Jerry's early single, rebranding as Simon and Garfunkel after signing with Columbia, the false start of a debut album , Tom Wilson's let's-go-electric revision of the chart-topping “The Sound of Silence,” Graduation — it's all here, with demo recordings, contact sheets with covers, faded studio news clips.

Even if you already know the story, Worried it fills the periphery with anecdotes and excavated footage, as well as increasing the emphasis on certain pieces. Simon's relocation to London is usually treated as little more than a speed schedule in between Wednesday morning, 3 a.m stops and “Silence” 2.0 begins the Golden Age of Simon & Garfunkel. The paper elevates its status from footnote to game-changer, redefining its time abroad as key to both personal growth and a creative level. If you thought the duo seemed politically and culturally out of place after headlining the hippie ground zero that was Monterey Pop, you're reminded that they did songs of america, a 1969 CBS special (directed by Charles Grodin!) that mixed their music with sharp commentary and news clips. America's 200th birthday is coming up, Garfunkel thinks at one point. “Do you think he'll make it?” Simon replies.

It's over with Bridge over troubled waters, bitterness and separation as Artie leaves to make movies and Simon is left to do “nothing” but write and arrange one of the most popular albums of the 1970s. When Part 2 begins, Simon is ready to start a career on his own. Columbia boss Clive Davis is the devil on Simon's shoulder, saying he's making a huge mistake by breaking up the label's biggest-selling act. As for the angel whispering in his ear, that's Simon's first wife, Peggy Harper — she's the one who reminds him that he's writing the songs, so why worry? What follows is the story that proves Harper right more than once. Also: SNL, One Trick Pony, a massively successful reunion, a not-so-successful attempt at a reunion tour and album, several flirtations with world music, meeting Eddie Brickell and éminence grise condition. The only constant is reinvention. That and the love of harmonies.

There are treasures abound, regardless of whether you're a die-hard Paul Simon fan Worried, Though it helps if you're willing to argue the merits of inner-city disco like “Ace in the Hole” or whether the wounded lyrics of “Allergies” offset the song's musical jumble. What's interesting about this doctor's slanted look at Simon's career, as well as focusing on the music for the madness going on around him, is how failure is something that inspires opportunities for renewal even more than success . You can't get the Central Park reunion concert without One Trick Pony failure to find an audience. if Hearts and bones had it not been seen as a mistake, Simon might not have had the freedom to be alone and follow his muse to South Africa, which gave the world Graceland. On whether this era-defining album is cultural appropriation – a theme also picked up on Joe Berlinger's Uin African Skies — the doc supplies extended segments of a 1987 concert in Zimbabwe, in which Simon plays with many different African musicians and regularly hands over the spotlight. He wanted the world to know where this music came from and who was making it before his diamond-encrusted shoes set foot on the continent's shores.

“Verse 2” picks up in 1992, right after Simon's fall The Rhythm of the Saints — doesn't skip over the six albums or the controversial Broadway production Capeman that separate that triumph of the early 90s Seven Psalms so much as to ignore their existence altogether. Such glaring back-half omissions are maintained In Restless dreams from just being close to the definitive Paul Simon documentary as opposed to definitive. Again, Gibney is not trying to be comprehensive. It's worth remembering that this project begins with Simon chasing a literal dream while struggling with an injury (he lost hearing in one ear near the start of recording, which has caused his singing style to change drastically), age and the time. There's a philosophical quest and artistry worth that went into finishing this album. The fact that we get to see it made through the filter of this life, and how it brought him to this moment, makes it that much more impressive.