Review: Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me
After years in the limelight, Selena Gomez achieves unimaginable stardom. But just as she reaches a new peak, an unexpected turn pulls her into darkness. This uniquely raw and intimate documentary spans her six-year journey into a new light.
I can’t lie when I say that Selena Gomez was one of my biggest crushes growing up, whether it was through her music or with interviews I watched of hers, I was always starstruck with how beautiful she is, inside and out. Behind that beauty was a lot of pain and suffering, from the hands of unfortunate health issues and the media, in which has raised her. Much like The Princess, a Diana documentary that released earlier this year, has similar thematic focuses and both involve the media. The paparazzi, the lack of empathy and care from interviewers when they ask their questions & most “importantly”, the people. Criticism is everywhere, it’s silent and it’s loud. It’s heard but it’s not taken, not when it’s so abusive. Selena throughout her whole life has had completely different perception of her as a person & that has greatly affected her, because if she doesn’t know who she is, how come the media do? They don’t, they have no idea.
This documentary is split into chapters through a voice over by Selena, voicing her thoughts. As lovely as it is to hear how she’s feeling, during the documented scenes where the camera walks around as she’s upset already tells us this. Accompanied by her voice over are beautiful visuals, which I expected and hoped they’d expand upon, possibly telling the story of her feelings through visual storytelling. I personally believed I would have connected with her even more deeply through this.
While I don’t believe this to be true criticism, it isn’t. People are allowed to believe into anything they want to, but, the documentary occasionally shed light on religion and god. As heartwarming as it is to see Selena and many others comforted by a belief, these were parts I didn’t feel that connected with. It doesn’t take away anything from the personal connection I felt with Selena during the runtime, it was just a moment of disconnect with the film itself. That is personal, not professionally a flaw.
It is a tough watch, I was brought to tears in multiple instances and it does communicate Selena’s feelings superbly, I felt it in her voice and the voices around her. She has a heart that was robbed by the people that don’t know her, which pushed her away from the ones who are beside her. It’s tragic, it’s heartbreaking & it’s enough to make you feel more connected with a celebrity than ever. She is us.
