With Kid Cudi suddenly trending like it’s the early 10s again (thanks to a certain borough-centric movie), it bears noting that Selena Gomez already pulled him out of the woodwork earlier this year when Rare came out, now deciding to release a video for “A Sweeter Place” at a time when such an outlook is needed by everyone (no matter how much of a lie it is, and it clearly turned sinister when Miley Cyrus tried to express a similar sentiment by covering The Beatles’ “Help!” in an empty stadium).
To capture an immediate sense of “sweetness”–or at least the picket fence stylings reserved primarily for the 50s–the opening shot takes us through a sea of clouds to land down on a suburban street, whereupon we enter the seemingly idyllic home in which Selena resides, panning through it, whether intentional or not, in the vein of a horror movie–not entirely unlike some slasher flick out the 1980s à la Nightmare on Elm Street. Considering the horrors Gomez has been through over the past few years with regard to her health issues, that sort of ominousness sprung from a sense of mistrust in stability is to be expected. So it is that she sings in the first verse, “Learnin’ to breathe/Up in the clouds, far from the crowds/I can’t believe I can be loud/Holdin’ hands with the darkness and knowin’ my heart is allowed.” But as they say to make you feel better, it’s always darkest before the dawn.
The sinister, gritty backbeat that builds to the chorus is in keeping with Kid Cudi’s brand, and fits in seamlessly with closing in on a sleeping Gomez slumped over her desk, her hand resting on a map of constellations as she sings, “There must be a sweeter place/We can sugarcoat the taste.” Ah, what an American sentiment indeed. Seeming to wake up in the alternate dimension she had longed for, Selena finds herself in a space devoid of all things except three doors to choose from. Settling on one that leads her up a staircase, we’re given a brief interlude into what Kid Cudi is doing as he goes to his own sweeter place thanks to smoking up. Musing, “As I fantasize/So much to see, I’m in paradise/Now see, how could it be?/We will find our way, we’ll find the things we seek.”
It’s a cheery thought, if not at all based in the reality we see around us. All at once, Selena is back in the void area with three door options, choosing another one that leads her into a screening room with a film reel. As she watches it countdown, she suddenly seems to be in the movie (not unlike a The Purple Rose of Cairo phenomenon–or like Madonna watching a home video of herself in the Pepsi commercial that got pulled), transported to an outdoor space seemingly inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream as she approaches a lone box with a pink ribbon around it.
The Alice in Wonderland-like quality to the setup beckons her to open it, only to find a rhinestone encrusted microphone featuring her name on it. Of course, we can interpret what the meaning of “a sweeter place” is to Selena now–that place she–and all artists–go whenever they let their creativity astral project them to another realm. For those without an artistic inclination, however, well, they’re likely trapped in this dump of a dimension for a life sentence. And even Selena has to wake up from her “sweeter place” of a dream eventually, as she does at the end of the video.
