CNN
—
In essentially the most deeply private facet of “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” the singer-actor reads excerpts from her journal full of self-doubt and anxiousness, together with strains like “I’ve to cease dwelling like this” and “I wish to know breathe once more.” Opening up about her bipolar disorder is unquestionably a service, however the six-year span encompassed by this intimate Apple TV+ presentation labors to flesh out its revelations right into a documentary.
Directed by Alek Keshishian, whose credit embrace “Madonna: Reality or Dare” in addition to Gomez’s 2015 video “Arms to Myself,” the movie clearly shows in depth entry to its topic, starting with preparation for her 2016 tour throughout rehearsals at Los Angeles’ Sports activities Area, earlier than she lower the efficiency schedule brief resulting from anxiousness and panic assaults.
From there, “My Thoughts & Me” (additionally the title of a brand new track Gomez is releasing) careens just about far and wide, following her on a visit to Kenya, tagging alongside as she endures questions from paparazzi, accompanying her as she visits folks from her outdated neighborhood, and reflecting her irritations coping with press as a part of a media tour.
“I really feel like a product,” she complains at one level, later confiding to buddies that the form of inane questions she repeatedly fields can seem to be “such a waste of time.”
The documentary is maybe most notable in showcasing Gomez’s work on behalf of the Rare Impact Fund, an effort to boost cash to help youths coping with mental-health considerations and points.
The primary drawback is that there’s a scattered, virtually arbitrary really feel to what Gomez is proven doing and the place, whereas skipping over some related latest additions to her resume, just like the success of the Hulu sequence “Only Murders in the Building.”
“As nice as life was, beneath all of it I used to be struggling,” Gomez says throughout a speech, which neatly sums up the underlying level of the documentary, and the truth that even somebody who seemingly has all of it will be tormented by challenges.
It’s straightforward to downplay the braveness it takes for celebrities to let down their guard and acknowledge their frailties or fallibility, revealing a side of herself the general public doesn’t all the time see. That alone makes the message vital – some extent underscored by the jetsetter elements of Gomez’s life on show right here – and if it helps one particular person, extra energy to her.
Nonetheless, if Gomez chafes, understandably, at feeling like “a product,” “My Thoughts & Me” doesn’t escape the notion that it’s leveraging that fame, and the product-like a part of her existence, to be able to promote it.
“Selena Gomez: My Thoughts & Me” premieres November 4 on Apple TV+. Disclosure: My spouse works for a unit of Apple.
