Clouds is a tribute to late teen singer-songwriter Zach Sobiech, directed by Justin Baldoni and starring Fin Argus in the lead role. Zach was diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 14 and undergoes 20 rounds of chemo till the age of 17. The movie begins hereafter, showing how he fought the disease and emerged as a successful artist.
“What is it you plan to do with your One Wild and Precious Life?”
This is the riveting question Zach’s teacher (Lil Rel Howrey) asks the class for their college essay. While for the rest of them, it was the motivation to get into college, for Zach it was vital and urgent.
Zach always wanted to become a singer but had not thought that he could write a song of his own. After the return of his cancer and the news that it is slowly spreading to his lungs, he started writing and most importantly dreaming, to fly higher in the clouds. He makes a video with his childhood best friend Sammy (Sabrina Carpenter) and puts it up on YouTube which was taken appreciably well by the people. The video gets him and Sammy a call from the biggest music company as songwriters. While returning from a trip, he comes up with his last song “Clouds” ironically in an airplane which became his most famous song. The song has 14 million views on YouTube and is still counting.
Zach Sobiech fell in love with his school crush Amy, coming up with the most beautiful “promposal”. Despite being strong, he had his moments of frustration and weakness, when he starts dreaming about the future, of marrying and having kids and realizing the hard truth that he is not entitled to having these things.
The relationship Zach Sobiech has with his best friend, Sammy is one that is most beautiful and serene. The fact that she likes him more than just a friend and still accepts him with Amy and supports him, makes us adore her even more.
Clouds also portrays how the cancer affected his family’s life, specifically how it consumed his parent’s lives, as they confess that they have barely looked at each other since then. The scene depicting Zach’s younger sister facing the quiet terror of visiting him on his deathbed tears away the heart.
No sooner he records and puts up his video, his song becomes a massive hit, getting radio-airplay and tops the iTunes chart. Zach gets to sing at his own concert as he always dreamed which was attended by all his school friends and classmates to throw him an early prom party. Sammy sings her heart out for Zach, with the song “How to go to confession” and is no doubt the best of the many scenes. The scene with Zach breaking down as he performs his last bit, and the audience supports him by continuing his song is the true depiction that his song has made him immortal and he is going to be there always putting a little smile on anyone who listens to his song.
Zach Sobiech finally finds his answer to what he wants to do with his precious life, to make people happy, as much as he can, for as long as he can, and he continues to do that even after he is gone. He raised a fund, called the Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund, with the money he earned from his music to help in the research of finding a cure to his disease.
The movie, though touching upon a sensitive issue as this, won’t feel depressing but pleasant and beautiful, giving you an important message.
“You don’t have to find out you’re Dying to Start living”.
Clouds is streaming on Disney+
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