Perhaps not everyone can have a transcendent experience listening to Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” in the south of France, but it’s hard for anyone to hear the music composed by Paul Simon without having a memorable experience. Paul Simon went beyond Garfunkel (with whom he ended up having a thorny relationship) to have a long career and an intriguing life. In this epic film, we delve into what has made him one of the biggest names in American songwriting.
How to encompass such a long career, remarkable in different times and contexts, without resorting to a mere chronological succession of facts? The answer Alex Gibney found in this documentary, epic in scope and length, is to use a specific moment and, then, to irradiate from it a career spanning six decades. “In Restless Dreams” follows Paul Simon through the recording process of “7 Psalms” (2023), showing him to be methodical and still curious about the magical nature of creation. Without resorting to talking heads, we revisit everything through a very generous amount of archive material: the growing up in Queens, the decisive 1960s, of which Simon & Garfunkel became icons, the stormy relationship with Garfunkel, the curiosity about the world and its countless sounds that would result in “Graceland” and the controversy that it brought. In the end, there’s a new album finished and the immensity that led Paul Simon there, back from the time he was just a kid in his bedroom trying to sound like the Everly Brothers. (Mário Lopes)
