Far West

The scouts

The premise screams every wellness retreat cliché in the book—burnt-out creative seeks desert redemption—but if Simon actually deconstructs that fantasy instead of wallowing in it, there's a subversive film buried here; I need to see if he's interrogating the myth or just romanticizing escape.

This sits squarely in the essay-film tradition of introspective documentary, and what matters is whether Simon's formal choices—his pacing, his visual composition, the rhythm of revelation—earn the quietude he's asking us to sit with; the tenderness reads as restraint, which is either disciplined or self-indulgent depending on the execution.

The real test is whether Simon found one specific gesture—a moment of doubt creeping in, a sound that undercuts the serenity, a single edit that reframes what 'peace' actually means—that makes the whole gambit feel earned rather than aspirational.