Clouds

Director: Justin Baldoni

Writer: Kara Holden, Casey La Scala, Patrick Kopka, Laura Sobiech (author of the book this movie is based on)

Starring: Fin Argus, Sabrina Carpenter, Madison Iseman, Neve Campbell, Tom Everett Scott, Lil Rel Howery

Reason for watching: new release

Number of times I’ve watched it: first time

***

As of October 19th, 2020, if I had a nickel for every time I saw a movie about sick teenagers where a kid goes into remission and the cancer comes back worse than before and ultimately kills the kid, I would have two nickels. Yes, I know that there are more than two of these movies. But after the first film adaption of one of John Green’s novels, I was out on these kinds of movies. But there have been several movies in this genre that have been released in the 2010’s, and they starred everyone from Ron Swanson, Rue from The Hunger Games, Cody from The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, and Arya Stark. But the unabashed sadness and pretentiousness of The Fault in Our Stars shut down my interest in this grouping. But six years later, I saw Clouds.

Basic plot summary here: Zach Sobiech (Fin Argus) has already beaten cancer once when it comes back much stronger. The doctors don’t give him much longer to live. But his parents (Neve Campbell and Tom Everett Scott) make every effort to make his final few months comfortable. He musters up the courage to ask out Amy (Madison Iseman) and starts making music with his best friend Sammy (hey, that’s my best friend’s name!) (Sabrina Carpenter). Zach and Sammy’s music lands them a record deal, a sweet salary that they use to start a cancer research fund, and a hit single “Clouds.” Zach fights hard but eventually passes away.

First of all, I wanna put out some facts that will probably make you smile about this movie: Zach’s cancer foundation has raised more than $2,000,000 at the time of this writing; his song hit #1 on iTunes after his passing; researchers at the University of Minnesota funded by Zach’s foundation have helped find an excellent treatment for the kind of cancer that he had. All of this came from one young man. It gives me hope.

The fact of the matter is, it is really easy to make a bad teen drama about sickness. The misery of the set up just makes the whole movie feel ultra-depressing and can take you out of the story. It’s a thin line to wire walk. But this movie pulls it off by retaining a sense of hope. The writing does not shy away from the direness of the circumstances, but the characters don’t run from each other. There is a conscious choice the characters make to invest in each other and keep the fight going, even after it becomes clear that Zach doesn’t have long to live. Their combined strength keeps them going. I also have to give props to the editor and cinematographer. Plus, I enjoyed Sabrina Carpenter’s performance as the best friend as well, who brings a good comedic edge.

I do have to take some things away. There’s a forced best-friends-love-each-other-secretly plot that goes no where and doesn’t come back in any meaningful way. And there’s one scene between Zach and Amy that is the only overly dramatic one. Plus the message and plot set up are not that original. But I can’t take away from this movie’s inspiration. Just like Zach, it keeps fighting, and it gives us inspiration to keep fighting too.

7/10

Until I see another one