--- title: In Restless Dreams: Paul Simon Docuseries Review description: 'In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon' traces the journey of a kid from Queens who made it big. canonical: https://time.com/6903578/in-restless-dreams-paul-simon-review/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-03-15T17:29:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T17:17:20.489Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Paul Simon’s Many Lives Are on Display in a Jubilant New Doc og:description: 'In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon' traces the journey of a kid from Queens who made it big. og:url: https://time.com/6903578/in-restless-dreams-paul-simon-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta80d7dbbe2aa1f9b/698a5495096a9401036b0475/IRD_graceland_tour_SA_10582.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Simon’s Many Lives Are on Display in a Jubilant New Doc twitter:description: 'In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon' traces the journey of a kid from Queens who made it big. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta80d7dbbe2aa1f9b/698a5495096a9401036b0475/IRD_graceland_tour_SA_10582.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Simon’s Many Lives Are on Display in a Jubilant New Docuseries > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Mar 15, 2024 5:29 PM UTC  A still of Simon onstage in In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon A still of Simon onstage in In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul SimonCourtesy of MGM+  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Mar 15, 2024 5:29 PM UTC If you didn’t grow up with a well-worn copy of [_Sounds of Silence_](https://time.com/4284552/simon-garfunkel-billboard-sad-affleck/)_, Bookends,_ or _Bridge Over Troubled Water_ among the LPs stacked near the family hi-fi, your parents or grandparents probably did. From the mid- to late 1960s, the sounds of Simon & Garfunkel were so ubiquitous you couldn’t escape them if you wanted to. Their songs, not overtly political, dealt with everyday things like friendship, impending breakups, the simple pleasures of spending a day at the zoo, and their opaline harmonies had a soothing, shimmering quality. [Paul Simon](https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1975813%5F1975847%5F1976759,00.html) and Art Garfunkel—who’d been friends and musical compatriots since their childhood in Queens—broke up, somewhat acrimoniously, in 1970; it took fans ages to recover. While Garfunkel pursued acting, Simon soldiered on as a singer-songwriter, and the numerous highs—and occasional lows—of his career form the arc of [Alex Gibney](https://time.com/5550930/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-documentary/)’s perceptive and comprehensive two-part docuseries _In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon._ (The docuseries airs in two parts on MGM+, on March 17 and March 24.) Gibney, known for docs like _Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room_ and _Taxi to the Dark Side,_ threads Simon’s past and present into a graceful whole. He spends time with Simon in the small, cozy studio adjacent to his Wimberley, Texas, home—a facility with the kind of luxe, cowboy-rustic quality that only lots of money can buy—as Simon, now 82, prepares his 15th solo album, _Seven Psalms,_ released last May. After the Simon & Garfunkel breakup, Simon became hugely successful, with some bumps along the way. He took chances on projects that didn’t work—1980’s _One Trick Pony,_ a movie in which he played a fictional version of himself, flopped, and his 1983 studio album _Hearts and Bones,_ written and recorded around the time of his intensely brief marriage to Carrie Fisher, disappointed fans who’d been hoping for a Simon & Garfunkel reunion album. The [two had reconciled in 1981 for a blowout concert](https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/08/24/10-band-reunions-that-rocked/slide/simon-and-garfunkel/) in Central Park, though as the documentary makes clear, Simon still couldn’t get past his erstwhile partner’s annoying habits and perceived self-centeredness, which is why he decided to cut himself free once again. Even so, in the context of such a vast and varied career, those small dips seem inconsequential. Gibney frames Simon’s past—beginning with charming black-and-white publicity photos of teenage Paul and Art taken around the time of their first, baby-step hit, “Hey Schoolgirl,” in 1957—with the realities of his present. His marriage to f[ellow singer-songwriter Edie Brickell](https://time.com/4089872/steve-martin-edie-brickell-interview/) appears to be one of ardent closeness. (Brickell tells a wonderful story about performing her hit “What I Am” on _Saturday Night Live,_ in 1988, and botching the words as she catches sight of Simon standing near one of the monitors. Gibney illustrates the moment with a clip—we get to see the lightning bolt hit.) But as Simon writes and records _Seven Psalms,_ circa 2021, he struggles with hearing loss, and he’s frank about how much this distresses him. He’s able to write with the help of small Bose speakers attached to his computer, but has trouble figuring out how to sing. He runs through a lyric in front of the mic and stops short after hitting a clunker: “I’ll have to grab that note another day.” Mostly, though, _In Restless Dreams_ rings with jubilance. Simon still revels in the mystery of where songs come from, and we also learn some tricks about how they become dazzling, finished artifacts. (The echoing drums featured on Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” were recorded, by ace engineer Roy Halee, near an elevator shaft.) Gibney includes choice clips of Simon appearing on talk shows in the 1970s, a thoughtful, elfin presence with a dry sense of humor. (At one point he says that he loves hearing his songs in an elevator, or, better yet, being hummed by a stranger on the street.) Look for his sly smile as he sits side-by-side with George Harrison, performing “Here Comes the Sun” on _Saturday Night Live_ in 1976\. Even for a big deal like Paul Simon, getting to perform with a Beatle is clearly a _very_ big deal. Best of all is the footage from the [era of Simon’s 1986 _Graceland_](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,962307,00.html)_,_ showing him talking and laughing with musicians in Johannesburg—though he’s also listening to them intently, and learning from them. The album was controversial in its era: Simon had broken the cultural boycott against South Africa, imposed as a response to apartheid, and he was also accused of cultural appropriation. But Gibney reframes that controversy by including vintage clips of exiled musicians Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba, both of whom toured with Simon after the album’s release. For these artists, unwelcome in their home country, the chance to perform with Simon and to bring their music to new and bigger audiences constituted a spiritual homecoming, at least. As Wynton Marsalis, one of Simon’s collaborators on _Seven Psalms,_ puts it, his work represents “not the reduction of feeling, but the expansion of feeling.” That’s how a kid from Queens can reach out to the bigger world—and give it back to us, heard anew. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6903578/in-restless-dreams-paul-simon-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6903578/in-restless-dreams-paul-simon-review/"},"headline":"Paul Simon’s Many Lives Are on Display in a Jubilant New Docuseries","datePublished":"2024-03-15T17:29:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:17:20.489Z","description":"'In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon' traces the journey of a kid from Queens who made it big.","url":"https://time.com/6903578/in-restless-dreams-paul-simon-review/","keywords":["movies","review","Magazine","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta80d7dbbe2aa1f9b/698a5495096a9401036b0475/IRD_graceland_tour_SA_10582.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta80d7dbbe2aa1f9b/698a5495096a9401036b0475/IRD_graceland_tour_SA_10582.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon","caption":"In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon","creditText":"Courtesy of MGM+","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6903578/in-restless-dreams-paul-simon-review/","name":"Paul Simon’s Many Lives Are on Display in a Jubilant New Docuseries"}}]}] ```