Selena Gomez's "Bad Liar" music video, directed by Jesse Peretz (Girls, Orange Is The New Black) just came out, and it's a cinematic, artful, potentially queer masterpiece.
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The first thing to note about the film is that Gomez takes on four different roles within its 3 minutes and 52 seconds: that of a young, shy high school girl in the '70s (which, by the way, is a great era for her aesthetically). We'll call her Young Shy:
Then she plays an adorable, pervy man who seems to be the school principal and Young Shy's dad. Let's nickname him Adorable Pervy:
And Adorable Pervy is married to Young Shy's sad, beautiful mother. Here's our girl, Sad Beautiful:
But even though he's married to Sad Beautiful, Adorable Pervy keeps flirting with this cheerful blonde gym teacher. Check out Cheerful Blonde's glorious Farrah Fawcett hair:
Throughout the video, Young Shy keeps looking over hopefully at Cheerful Blonde. By the end of "Bad Liar," she's shown caressing a picture of Cheerful Blonde that she keeps hidden underneath her pillow.
Just so we're clear: in this video, Gomez plays four things: a young, shy lesbian; an adulterous drag king who keeps fondling his crotch; a hot gym teacher; and a disassociating, boozy trophy wife.
We feel fairly confident to say those are the four most powerful gay tropes in history. And thus, Gomez has created the '70s queer high school drama we've so desperately needed in these troubling times.
Take a look at "Bad Liar," below, where Gomez also teases something called "Fetish" near the end. An album? A song? A sequel about Young Shy being Cheerful Blonde's obedient sub?
