2022 AFI Festival: Selena Gomez: My Mind And Me documentary review

The opening night film of the 2022 AFI Film Festival was the documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me. Is the documentary worth checking out? Let’s dive in.

Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me follows the story of Selena Gomez, who is on top of the world. But with that level of fame comes so much more that turns her world upside down. The movie is written by Paul Marchand and Alek Keshishian, with the latter directing it.

The documentary begins in 2016, when the weight of the world started to collapse on Gomez. The pressure from touring, a famous breakup, and the never relenting paparazzi highlight one of the many reasons why Gomez began to take a turn for the worse. However, the biggest battle Gomez was facing was her mental health and the struggle she was facing internally.

My Mind and Me is a thought-provoking look at mental health

There have been few instances where documentaries about stars this early in their career work. So often you watch them and try to figure out what it was about or why this person was making something like this without a storied career. However, My Mind and Me is the opposite of every musical documentary before it. The writer/Director Alek Keshishian, with the help of Gomez, dives deep into the issues of a young girl thrust into the spotlight and going through every range of emotion with the camera in her face.

Far too often, people talk about how “celebrities can’t have these problems,” but we all must understand that they are people, too. For example, at one point in the documentary, Gomez tells how she dropped out of school in the 8th grade. Then she talked about spending the next four years doing school in front of a computer before going onto the set. Unfortunately, these young actors/musicians often lose so much of that normal growth spurt we all get, whether it’s interacting with other kids or just learning the fundamentals of life, that they lose themselves along the way.

Gomez’s willingness to leave it all on the line was one of the more impressive things about this documentary. She showed every single part of her that most people in her position wouldn’t. Some moments get ugly, and the camera doesn’t waver, and I can’t credit her enough for her willingness to put that vulnerability onto the screen in the hope that someone will watch it and be helped by her sharing this story.

Overall, My Mind and Me is a thought-provoking look at mental health and how seriously it should be taken. Selena Gomez is not just a beautiful face, a great musician, or even a great actress. She’s a strong and independent woman on a mission to help others with her celebrity. For that, she deserves all the credit in the world. This was one heck of a documentary.

Selena Gomez: My Mind And Me hits Apple TV+ on Nov. 4, 2022.