Yahoo Movies ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me’ Review: A Star Deals With Mental Health Struggles in a Smart Pop Doc That Avoids Disney Endings
Among the things that become apparent over the course of “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” one is that she comes off as lovable as you’ve imagined she is from her persona in music, television, films and philanthropic efforts. Something that comes to light right on the heels of that non-revelation is that your affection for her isn’t going to make her one bit less anxious or depressed, at least when she’s in the throes of the bipolar condition that director Alek Keshishian largely focuses on.
It’s far from the first music doc to reveal that it can be lonely at the top, but it is among the few to convey that there are no easy answers for that when mental illness is at the root. Of all the portrayals of pop superstars that have been produced in-house in recent years, “My Mind & Me” is probably the one with the least celebratory third act … which is something to celebrate. It’s not headed toward a downbeat finish, either, but the fact that the filmmakers don’t manufacture a way to end on a pep rally sets this film apart from the wave of docs in which minor crises of conscience or even colds become easily resolved plot points on the way to a big closing stadium show.
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The heaviest drama is front-loaded right into the first half-hour. Gomez was an admirer of Keshishian’s 1991 Madonna doc “Truth or Dare,” and along with her management team and new label, enlisted him to come along on her 2016 “Revival” tour. In what little footage from that initial attempt at a shoot makes it into the new film, Gomez nears the point of a nervous breakdown — or what is later described in the film as a “psychotic break.” To the naked eye, Gomez’s crying fits might look like a mixture of exhaustion and unreadiness, but the film feels barely underway when viewers find out the tour has been halted and she’s been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Her long-diagnosed lupus is not the least of her problems, but one less potentially dangerous to her in the short term than thoughts of self-harm.
When the cameras turn back on again in 2019, Gomez seems nearly the model of successful mental health treatment and even something resembling well-adjustedness. You might wonder if the rest of the film will fall into being the glorified B-roll expansion of more typical music docs, as Gomez returns to her Texas hometown with a former classmate for a series of sweet reconnections — stopping in for a meet-and-greet with her old middle school and visiting a housebound woman whose dollhouse once offered her succor. A trip to Kenya with reps from her charity of choice leads to heartfelt aspirations toward greater philanthropic work, even as she doubts whether she’s a good enough person to do lifesaving work.
And then, almost everything that could go wrong in her life does, from her health conditions to that seemingly idyllic charity. There’s no second descent into anything that looks like psychosis, but you’ve rarely seen a star on camera who has so transparently had enough of the Hollywood rat race, to the point that she’s openly bored or prickly in interview situations — not that any of the TV reporters pressing her for pithy sound bites appears to notice. Probably the most riveting sequence in the doc is a segment when Gomez submits herself to a series of quick, banal (to put it mildly) Q&As that barely skim the surface of the issues that now interest her.
Watching the minutes tick down, an experienced music doc-watcher may wonder how there’s going to be time for a second extended treatment and climactic dance party. But Keshishian isn’t rushing to go any such place in the final clinch; Gomez’s further recovery will come in the form of a series of subtle adjustments, it’s suggested, rather than any savior in a white coat or a deus-ex-machina sense of redemptive self-worth. End titles that point up some of the public work Gomez has done over the past couple of years to put mental health curricula in schools heighten the closing uplift — as does the sheer intuitive feeling that Gomez’s palpable empathy for others will extend to herself as she marches forward.
There are holes in the movie, just about all of them deliberate paths of avoidance that don’t take too much away from a narrative that focuses tightly on her mental health and not career turns or romance. To the question of whether anything involving former paramour Justin Bieber will be addressed, the answer is: Not much. He’s invoked only as a query repeatedly shouted by paparazzi, which is probably for the best, although it’s not overly gossip-prone to wonder how a breakup that occurred during this period factored into her health. (“Ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Gomez says, seemingly about the split, and the movie coyly leaves it at that.) You may also long to hear more about the kidney transplant that predated initial filming, or more about her even more distant past as a Disney star, although the couple of times it comes up may say enough. (In the last act, going through a bad spell, Gomez objects to an outfit by saying, “It made me feel like Disney. I fuckin’ look like a witch with the outfit, doing the wand again.”)
The movie doesn’t just avoid the negatives: Her acting comeback triumph with “Only Murders in the Building” gets nary a mention, even in the flash-forward end titles — that’s how eager the film is not to present too happy an ending, or to keep Gomez’s struggles relatable to similarly troubled young viewers with fewer golden parachutes.
Gomez comes off as a deeply serious, intentionally minded person — the kind pop music could use a lot more of — but one with enough of a sparing sense of dark humor to hear sirens in the distance and joke, “There’s my ride.” Everything about “My Mind & Me” is likely to create further endearment, even the sticky parts … maybe especially the sticky parts, when it’s not just the mental health issues that cause her to act like she’s reached her limit. The increased affection of a nation of Selena stans is not remotely what’s going to keep her grounded, but fortunately, she didn’t have to lose us to love herself.
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