Clouds went Up, Up but not Much Higher

By Mari Pizzini –

Trust me, you don’t want your head too far in the clouds for this one. Justin Baldoni’s Clouds uses a true story of a terminal Minnesota teenager to pull on viewers’ heartstrings. The movie debuted on Disney+ on October 16th, two days before the anniversary of the protagonist, Zach Sobiech’s, song by the same name. 

Zach, played by Fin Argus, opens the movie with a monologue about how most teenagers believe they are invincible. Not the normal type of “nothing will hurt me” invincibility, but the “I will always have tomorrow” type of invincibility. Why does Zach need us to immediately understand this difference? 

Because he has osteosarcoma, and his tomorrows are never promised.

We first meet Zach and his best friend, Sammy, at a school talent show. Zach is bald and has crutches, but is filled with a fiery spirit and the hope that his chemo treatments are working. After we learn that his illness is terminal, the story follows Zach as he pursues his dreams of writing and performing music. His song “Clouds” becomes a huge hit across the country and eventually the world. Zach and Sammy end up performing together, just like they always wanted, and the rest is history. 

When I first started watching Clouds, I had no idea it was based on a true story. Zach and Sammy were just characters who liked to sing because that was what the producers chose. Then I figured out that that wasn’t the case.

Zach had been a real person, and this was his story. That, however, didn’t really help my opinion on the movie.

I don’t want to say the storyline was cliche, but I will say that it’s been used before. What really ended up saving this movie for me was the characters being based on real people. Their actions felt more intentional than in some other similar movies. But before I knew that, I was left a little bored by the “terminally ill teenager does something cool” trope.

Sammy ended up being my favorite character, and she stayed by Zach’s side until the end. As his best friend, I thought the producers would be obligated to make them fall in love. That doesn’t happen though! Well, it kind of does, but Zach’s true love interest is Amy. Breaking that secondary trope gave me a better appreciation for the movie itself.

Despite a new love story angle, the movie frustrated me a little. The timeline jumped forward really quickly, and there were some questions that came up concerning events. At one point Zach is said to be too sick to go to his fundraiser concert, and his parents even act like he can’t make it, but he ends up going. This doesn’t really surprise anyone but Amy, and I felt as if the audience was missing some crucial piece of information. Did his parents know he was going to end up going? Was his going to the concert supposed to be a surprise for Amy? I’m still not sure.

However, I ended up in tears at the end of the movie. Despite being confused about some of the show’s scenes, being tired of the tropes, and just genuinely thinking it was an okay movie, Clouds was touching. I think it’s worth the watch once, but maybe not anything after that. For that reason I’m giving Clouds five microphones out of ten.