“In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon,” Alex Gibney’s 31⁄2-hour documentary about singer-songwriter Paul Simon — streaming in two parts on MGM+ — takes its title from a line in “The Sound of Silence,” the 1964 song that would make Simon and his performing partner, Art Garfunkel, household names. The lyric also suggests something about the approach Gibney, a much-lauded documentarian whose films have won an Academy Award and multiple Emmys, takes in this exploration of Simon’s career and the making of his 2023 album, “Seven Psalms.” The hook is undeniable.
In 2021, Gibney brings a minimal crew into Simon’s cabin studio at his home in Wimberley, Texas, to capture the brainstorming and recording of a suite of new songs. The filmmaker, whose 2015 documentary “Frank Sinatra: All or Nothing at All” impressed Simon, had already been discussing a project with him when the offer came. “We first met in the back of a small restaurant in Austin, Texas,” Gibney recalled.
“I made the mistake of wearing a Boston Red Sox hat. But I think we got past that, anyway.” Later, the men broke the ice in an appropriate fashion.
“We played catch, I think the first day. ..
. He’s got a good lefty delivery. I just started hanging out as he was kind of working through stuff.
” The intimate segments spiral off from conversational cues into a lifetime of memories: Simon’s and those of an American pop consciousness he’s helped to shape since 1957, when “H.
