Director: Alex Gibney
Producers: Erin Edeiken, Alex Gibney, David Rahtz, Svetlana Zill
Starring: Paul Simon, Edie Brickell, Art Garfunkel, Carrie Fisher
Year: 2023
Country: USA
BBFC Certification: PG
Duration: 209 mins
Some people say the mark of a good documentary is if it can get you interested in a subject in which you’ve previously found no fascination. While it is certainly true to say that’s a strong skill for a documentarian to have, the documentary genre is too wide-ranging and diverse to make such generalisations. The new three-and-a-half hour documentary about singer-songwriter Paul Simon, for instance, assumes a certain base level of knowledge and interest before viewers take the plunge into its lengthy exploration. As a longtime fan of Simon’s work, I appreciate this approach, as In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon is able to illuminate me further on a subject with which I’m already familiar, without feeling the need to overexplain everything or hit all the well-worn stories we’ve heard on so many documentaries down the years. Had director Alex Gibney, the prolific documentarian behind the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Darkside, aimed to entice those previously uninterested in Simon, we would’ve ended up rehashing stories about that Chevy Chase music video all over again. Gibney is astute enough to realise the main audience for a three hour film about Paul Simon will be Paul Simon fans.
All this is not to say that In Restless Dreams excludes the uninitiated. One of the reasons the documentary is so long is that many of Simon’s songs are aloud to play out in their entirety, which will surely help in winning new fans for this extraordinary songwriter. There is ground well-covered in Simon’s career that of course must be returned to in order to present the whole picture. So we hear about his complex relationship with Art Garfunkel and the political controversy of his apartheid-era collaboration with South African musicians on Graceland. Gibney’s approach to this material is appropriately restrained, never pushing for Simon to snipe at his former partner and, in the process, creating the most balanced and vivid depiction of their friendship I’ve yet seen. But there’s a certain shorthand to the career retrospective that assumes you’ll know the album being referred to when people say “Bridge…” and appreciate the phenomenal cultural impact it had, which may confuse newcomers. Existing fans, meanwhile, may be disappointed that such a long film misses out great chunks of underexplored Simon albums, with everything between Rhythm of the Saints and Simon’s latest album Seven Psalms getting scant, if any, mention. Still, this isn’t the sort of documentary that scrutinises a discography album by album. By taking the opportunity to document Simon’s work on his latest record, Gibney gives us a glimpse of the artist at work which spotlights both the man and the music. This contemporary throughline provides a place to which the film can return between reminiscences, creating a fascinating juxtaposition between Simon’s previous superstardom and current artistic intimacy. His failing voice and hearing indicate the passage of time while his undimmed talent and passion prevent the film from ever feeling maudlin.
While some have argued In Restless Dreams is too long and would be better suited to release as a mini-series, watching the film in one sitting does provide it with a cinematic immersiveness on which established fans should thrive. In some ways, viewers might feel they’ve seen this documentary before: the retrospective tale of a musical star which examines their current work alongside their legacy. It’s hard to make these tried and treated formulas feel original, even if they tend to be reliably entertaining. But Gibney’s film feels impressively crafted, cutting between Simon’s intimate experience creating Seven Psalms and the sometimes hollow experiences of a showbiz lifestyle in a way that never feels obvious or hackneyed. The two strands enhance each other and cynics who suggest that the documenting of the creation of Seven Psalms was a contractual obligation in order to gain access to Simon are missing how beautifully Gibney dovetails the past and present to create a deeply satisfying portrait of a career. There’s plenty here to help fans of a sometimes enigmatic figure gain greater insight and understanding of him and the overwhelming feeling I came away with was a sense of warmth and intelligence that is too often passed over by those who want gory details of fractured friendships. Gibney instead gives us a snapshot of a life in all its resplendent complexity.
In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon is in cinemas for one night only on 13 October 2024. It is then released by Altitude on Blu-ray and Digital on 28 October 2024.
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