POPSCREEN: Miley Cyrus

It’s Miley! That really cute, cool girl who may or may not also be Hannah Montana is treating us to another awesome video. “The Climb” is a super deep meditation on the nature of struggle and how you can learn more from the bad times than the good ones. Also, the video offers us a sneak peek at her new movie, “Hannah Montana: The Movie.” Yay! Enough pre-teen enthusiasm already. “See You Again” may have been inexplicably catchy, but it seems the Miley magic couldn’t stretch to a second song. The hideously extended metaphor of mountain climbing as spiritual growth that runs throughout “The Climb” sits very oddly with the clips from the new movie. These show Miley doing normal teenage things like riding a horse, driving in a car, glaring lustfully at an attractive guy in a cowboy hat and getting very wet jumping into a rock pool. Keep in mind that Miley is 17, so if those last two sound a little creepy, that’s because they are. I would say the video fortunately consists of more than this, but it really isn’t that fortunate. We get Miley walking down a Roman-straight road, getting rained on—ending up wet once again—and somehow finishing up at the top of the Grand Canyon in blazing sunshine. There are also some CGI horses—which kind of resemble the stampeding Gallimimus from “Jurassic Park,” except much lamer—and a bizarre repeating habit where Miley throws a rose, her coat and not one but two boots over her shoulder. Dear Miley: it’s only lucky when you throw salt over your shoulder. And a casual disregard for your clothing doesn’t make you a diva. So, while for Miley it may be “all about the climb,” for us it’s really about surviving to the end of this dirge. Tweenage girls will probably love it. Those creepy guys in your entryway who insist on blaring out “See You Again” every night might even enjoy it. But for the rest of us, we’ll have to hope that suffering really does make you stronger. If so, watching this video is as good as working out. —Chris R. Kingston