A funny, freewheeling, self-aware French New Wavish anti-video — with a bit of The End of the F***ing World edge — with Selena Gomez starting a great relationship with my favorite pickup line, "Do you want to steal a car?"
A clever solution to needing to make a video: Instead of two artists FaceTiming about what kind of video to make, Selena Gomez just has Marshmello playback the song while she makes a video on the spot.
The specific fetish on display here isn't totally clear, but there's no mistaking the fact that Selena Gomez is charting a fearless path that mixes sexuality with a perfect balance of the strange and the commonplace.
Director Jesse Peretz — who's now likely better known for the series Girls than for his late '90s alt/rock videos, including Foo Fighters "Big Me" and "Learn To Fly" — sends Selena Gomez to the '70s for a complex high school tale filled with sexual tension and a whole lot of mystery, especially due to Gomez playing all the main characters.
Oh, and that bassline from "Psycho Killer" is the best.
You might get the sense that Selena Gomez is toying with you in this sexy twisty stylish video. Is she a play-at-home sexpot pining for the movie star? Or are the two of them living in bliss and she's just missing him when he's at work? Or maybe she's just a stalker.
Whatever the case, she's got her hands full in this welcome return from director Alek Keshishian (who you should know from his groundbreaking 1991 tour documentary film Madonna: Truth Or Dare).
Selena Gomez fans should be thrilled by her new video, even if they're not quite as thrilled as the lucky fans who got to be in the audience of the performance that serves as the crescendo.
It's pretty hard to pull off a "stare into the camera lens and cry" treatment. So, credit to Selena Gomez who delivers in an emotionally unguarded video that showcases a tourtured relationship with a man with Justin Bieber hair.
Sinead O'Connor and Rihanna should be proud (or consider themselves potentially served)...
