While procrastinating on my homework over the weekend, I stumbled upon the movie “Clouds” on Disney+. The movie is based on the true story of Zach Sobiech (Fin Argus) and his musical journey after he finds out his cancer is terminal.
The movie starts when Zach is 17, four years after he is diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. In the beginning, viewers get a feel of Zach’s upbeat and playful personality when he sings “I’m Sexy and I Know It” at his school’s talent show after his best friend, Sammy (Sabrina Carpenter), catches a case of stage fright and can’t go on. Later, Zach gets the news that his cancer is no longer treatable and he has months left to live. He writes, records and uploads his song ‘Clouds’ to YouTube. After his song becomes a hit, a record company reaches out and signs him and Sammy.
When I first started the movie, I was a little bit confused on where the plot began because it started toward the end of his cancer and I didn’t realize that until a few minutes into the movie. Once I figured that out though, the plot line moved along smoothly for the most part. There were a few scenes that felt pointless, like this one scene of his mom and dad fighting about their relationship with little mention of Zach. At another point, Sammy confesses her crush on Zach, but there is no follow-up to that side plot; they just continue on like nothing happened. Other than those few instances, though, I thought the storyline was straight-forward and kept my attention.
I love to watch sad and dramatic romance movies such as “The Fault in Our Stars,” and this movie perfectly fits into this category. Though the focus is primarily on Zach’s budding music career and experience of embracing life, another main plot to the story is his relationship with the girl he likes Amy (Madison Iseman). This relationship, and his terminal cancer, is what leads Zach to write his hit song “Clouds,” and the viewer gets to experience Zach and Amy’s highs and lows from his “Promposal” to her to their dealing with his sickness.
While this movie definitely had romantic aspects to it, it was also a family driven story. This was a nice add-on to the plot; however they mainly focused on his relationship with his mom (Neve Campbell) and younger sister Grace (Summer H. Howell). I wish they had focused a little bit more on the family as a whole. Though I enjoyed the family aspect, I did think that a few scenes muddled the focus of the story.
The last thing I did not like about this movie is the fact that his music is not brought up until late in the movie. I originally clicked on this movie because I knew the song from when it was a hit a few years ago. Whenever the music was brought up, it felt rushed. In the span of just a few minutes, the movie went from him and Sammy recording their music and posting it on YouTube to them signing to a record label under the name “A Firm Handshake,” which we get no other information about. Since the other parts of the movie were so strong, though, the musical aspect being sped up did not take too much away from the overall quality of the film.
My favorite part of the movie was the end. All throughout the movie, the actors recreated home videos of Zach, his friends and his family. At the end, the audience gets to see the original home videos, and the resemblance between them is uncanny. It was the perfect end to the movie.
While this movie is no “The Fault in Our Stars,” I think Justin Baldoni did a great job on this movie. It had the perfect mix between utterly depressing and uplifting scenes, and I would highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a movie to spark emotion.