July 7, 2021
I want to leave a quick message before starting the review. Feel free to give me any criticism or corrections so I can improve as a critic. Also, there will be some spoilers.
Clouds is a drama musical produced by Disney. The movie is based on the true story of Zach Sobiech, a high school senior who suffers from osteosarcoma, a bone cancer. Zach’s cancer becomes terminal, giving him a few months to live. After a trip to Lourdes, Zach gets an idea to write a song with his childhood friend, Sammy Brown. After Sammy posts their song on YouTube, it quickly goes viral while Zach thinks about taking his girlfriend, Amy Adamle, to prom. Due to the song’s popularity, a music company called BMI invites Zach and Sammy to be songwriters. While on a plane trip, Zach gets the idea to write a song called “Clouds”, which quickly becomes viral. Zach has his prom with Amy. In the end, Zach’s illness gets worse until he dies.
Zach is a positive character even though he has a few months to live. The movie demonstrates Zach’s positive attitude through the jokes he makes. In the beginning, Zach is making jokes about his baldness and his teacher, Mr. Weaver, when he substitutes Sammy in the talent show. Zach’s positive nature allows the movie to light up the mood, so the movie would not focus on his pain with his poor health condition. The lighthearted mood gets rid of a depressing mood. Zach is a likable character because he is very caring to his friends and family. For example, Zach breaks up with Amy because he wants her to move on after his death. Also, he feels guilty that he cannot start a family with her. Zach faces a sympathetic struggle of facing his mortality. When Zach is assigned to draft a college essay, the upsetting scene shows the audience that Zach would not graduate and go to college. Zach facing his mortality became a significant theme in the inciting incident. Zach plans to write a song with Sammy. Their hard work of songwriting progress and posting it on YouTube making the video going viral, satisfying. When a news company wants to talk to Zach, he does not want a journalist to talk about his cancer because he does not want any pity. There should be a scene of Zach deciding whether he has the interview or not because it shows Zach’s determination of how he wants people to view him. Zach’s character arc is not letting his mortality affect his life. The arc starts with a harsh comment telling him that he is not special for having cancer. In response, Zach sings the song and tries to bring light to the situation because he does not want to focus on his inevitable death. When Zach died, his college essay reveals his life goal is to make people happy and teach people that they can be living while dying. The bittersweet ending shows Zach completed his goal.
I felt that Sammy is quite an underdeveloped character because her established personality traits, in the beginning, are never brought up later in the story. Sammy never performs in the talent show and lets Zach substitute for her due to her stage fright. When Sammy heard about performing in the Metro, nothing about her stage fright is never mentioned. Also, Sammy’s crush on Zach is never relevant to the story and can be easily forgotten. Amy is a two-dimensional character because her personality is loving and understanding Zach. She never changes because she forgives Zach for not coming to her date due to his emergency surgery for his collapsed lung. In the end, Amy understands why Zach breaks up with her, which is to protect her from grief. She still has feelings for Zack. She is also glad for his success which is shown by smiling at Zach being invited to the Metro. Her character never changes and remains the same.
The relationship status of Zach’s parents is irrelevant in the story. There is a scene where Zach’s father, Rob, gives his son a GT-R so Zach can impress Amy. Zach’s mother, Laura, believes her husband does not like her because he never tells her about the car. After the argument scene, Rob and Laura stand as a happy couple. There is admirable, small detail about Laura talking about Zach’s funeral. Zach wants bagpipes. At the beginning of the funeral, bagpipes play. My favorite scene is Zach at prom. During prom, Zack sings “Cloud”, then he slowly loses consciousness. The audience supports Zack by finishing the performance for him. My least favorite scene is Zach getting baptized. The scene is well directed and demonstrates the character’s emotion without using words, but it comes out of nowhere and is very uncomfortable since there is no build-up.