Selena Gomez just release the movie video (and mini movie) for her single "Bad Liar," and boy is it a trip. The '70s-style, sepia-toned film directed by Jesse Peretz tells the story of a young high school student who feels out of place in the halls at school (sound familiar, 13 Reasons Why fans?) and finds solace in day dreaming about a crush. During the day, the student encounters the crush on multiple encounters, but never interacts with them. She just stares wistfully until they notice, then turns away.
But here's the thing — Gomez plays all the main characters in this whole love triangle, and it gets pretty weird and uncomfortable to watch at one point when you realise the actual dynamic of the love story. Gomez may be a "bad liar", but she's really good at confusing us. So, let's get into it.
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First we meet the high schooler Gomez, who has on flare jeans and a typical '70s hair-do. Here she is.
Based on the narrative of the lyrics and the video, she is one of the bad liars, because she can't hide her attraction to someone. Once she arrives at school, we see a Woodstock-looking group of mean girls give her the once-over as she walks to class.
Once she's in class, we see her looking out the window at a blonde Farrah Fawcett-looking woman who is also played by Gomez. She is flirting through a car window with a tiny, strange looking man who is, yes, also played by Gomez. We see them again playfully talking to each other in the school hallway as teenage Gomez creepily watches them.
Then there's a whole basketball sequence where the blonde lady reappears as the basketball instructor and the mustached man goes in the boys' locker room and fiddles with his pants. It's strange, but the gist of it (at this point) appears to be that the teenage Gomez is lusting after the male school teacher. By now, school is over and a Betty Draper-looking woman (also Gomez) picks up the male teacher in her car.
They have an awkward car ride, and then we see them seated at a dinner table together, clearly a couple. Then the high school girl walks in and we realise these two Gomez characters are her parents (weird), so obviously she isn't crushing on her own dad (I hope). The dinner looks tense. Then the video ends in the girl's bedroom, where she dances around and then pretends to be sleeping when her mom comes to check on her. She pops open her eyes and starts stroking a Polaroid picture of the blonde teacher, and the viewer realizes that the whole time the young Gomez has been trying to hide her feelings for her female teacher, all while watching her father also compete for her attention. Phew.
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Not only that, but then Gomez (the real life one) teases another new project and/or single at the very end of the video called "FETISH." I can only imagine what story that video will tell.
Watch the full saga below.