Please enjoy the most absurd but delightful romantic comedy Selena Gomez has ever done, in the form of her "Back to You" music video. The video, which features a hot blond guy with Justin Bieber hairstyle (and that's the most overt nod to Gomez's ex in there), tells the story of Gomez going back to her ex at a party, sneaking out and stealing a car with him, driving off to a green idyllic field, finding out they're wanted for grand theft auto while in their honeymoon phase, hanging in train cars then arguing about going to jail in terms of life and death. Gomez burns the car because the music-video-logic is that will stop the whole jail thing from happening, then leaves her Bieber-esque love interest to go back to that party. And the cycle starts all over again. It makes no sense, but it doesn't need to!
The song's audio plays over their silent, subtitled dialogue. Those lines are nonsensical and wonderful:
And if you are scouting for nods to Jelena, you could argue that Tales of Infidelity book Gomez is reading in the train car is a nod to their issues: Bieber admitted to cheating on Gomez in the past. You could maybe connect the polaroid camera Gomez uses to take photos of her hot blond love interest to the one presumably used to take that polaroid of Bieber that appears on her head in the Instagram official shot she shared of them.
You could argue that, or you could just take the video as it is: an art form separate from her personal life that's just cartoonish, solidly funny, and a great reminder of what a wonderful comedic actress Gomez has been since her Disney Channel days.
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
