Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Clouds’ on Disney+, a True-Story Cancer Drama Guaranteed to Destroy Reams of Kleenex

Disney+ original movie Clouds is “inspired by” the true story of Zach Sobiech, a Minnesota teenager who wrote a song about his struggles with terminal cancer, and watched it become a bona-fide hit before he passed away in 2013. Based on his mother Laura Sobiech’s book Fly a Little Higher: How God Answered a Mom’s Small Prayer in a Big Way, the film is a YA-style biopic with a faith-based fringe — and yes, it’s a weepie, which may be obvious, but consider yourself duly warned anyway.

CLOUDS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Autumn, 2012, the high school talent competition. Zach (Fin Argus) and his BFF Sammy (Sabrina Carpenter) have their guitars at the ready, but her nerves are here, there and everywhere. So Zach goes it alone, hobbling to the stage on crutches, taking off his stocking cap to reveal his bald head, cracking jokes, playing a ridiculous cover of LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy and I Know It” as kids laugh and adults cringe and shake their heads. Amy (Madison Iseman), who just finished a ballet performance, watches with the idiot grin of someone with a bulldozer of a crush. Zach is the type of teen who has a witty retort for every situation, and he routinely makes light of his four-year battle with osteosarcoma. Twenty-odd rounds of chemo later, the cancer is gone, and this current one is a formality. He’s a senior. Prom, graduation and college are on the horizon. And Amy has just texted him, asking if he’s going to ask her out or what, which would make his eyebrow raise if he had any at the moment.

The day of his picnic-date with Amy, he throws up, brushes his teeth, throws up again, brushes his teeth again, takes some medication, puts on a nice shirt and tie and coughs enough that his mother Laura (Neve Campbell) insists they go to the hospital. Amy sits on a blanket in the park as Zach undergoes emergency surgery. His lung collapsed. And the cancer is back. It’s untreatable. He has six-to-ten months to live. He may not make it to graduation. Only his family and Sammy know when he hobbles back to school, quipping as always. But when his favorite teacher, Mr. Weaver (Lil Rel Howery), assigns the class to write college essays that, he jokes, will only define “the whole trajectory of your life,” it hits home. Amy finds him. “I’m terminal,” he blurts. But she wants to be his girlfriend anyway.

Zach’s mother explains to him that he has a unique opportunity to push aside all the stuff that clutters people’s lives and focus on what’s important. She has a point. The family takes a trip to Lourdes, France, where she and Zach bathe in the city’s famed “healing” waters. (“This is like a Catholic theme park,” Zach’s older brother snarks.) He and Amy go on dates; he asks her to prom via the marquee at a Jason Mraz concert. He and Sammy write music together, share a song on YouTube and drop jaws when tens of thousands of people watch it. They drop again when Mr. Weaver calls a friend and lands them a legit music-publishing deal. On the flight home from New York City, he looks out the window, grabs a barf bag and quickly scribbles some lyrics. You know what he saw. It’s right there in the title of the movie.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: SNOTPURGE 2020 continues with another YA tear-extractor: Just this year, I’ve seen Chemical Hearts and Babyteeth and All Together Now and All the Bright Places and Spontaneous and now Clouds, which is the most straight-laced and mainstream among them. I think I’ve referenced The Fault in Our Stars for all of them, and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl for most, and here, I do it again.

Performance Worth Watching: Clouds is full of sturdy performances from Argus, Carpenter, Iseman, Campbell and Tom Everett Scott as Zach’s father. But Howery makes the most of his scenes as the teacher who’s chock-full of inspirational quotes — an underwritten role that nonetheless hums with earnest charisma.

Memorable Dialogue: “Can I stop chemo?”, Zach rasps from his hospital bed, accepting his fate.

Sex and Skin: Just some teen makeout sessions.

Our Take: This week in Do You Want to Put Yourself Through This Theater is Clouds, which will make you cry. Period. I welled up a half-dozen times. If you’re seeking this type of release, you will get it. Whether you’re more of a quiet choker or a heaving sobber, it will happen. Perhaps you’ll feel better afterwards; perhaps you’d rather watch Ant-Man and the Wasp. You know who you are before you sit down with a bowl of popcorn and a box of tissues and a need to escape your troubles, whatever they may be.

The real Zach Sobiech’s story is sincerely inspiring; the kid made the most of his final days, and accomplished a dream in which his songs were heard by millions. He was no doubt extraordinary in that sense, and a singular human being as we all are, and unremarkable as we all also are. As a religious statement, Clouds is significantly more subtle than the many simplistic faith-based movies that suggest prayer is the solution to life’s problems — the Lourdes bath does nothing to help Zach’s situation in a pragmatic sense, but it’s in the movie to deepen our sense of these characters.

The sequence is a perfect example of how director Justin Baldoni aims for sincerity and lets the chips fall where they may — if the way this story is told seems manipulative, so be it, because events aren’t over- or underplayed, and characters are complex, and everything rings true. But it veers into heavy melodrama in the final act, when the inevitabilities of Zach’s creative triumph and sad final fate dictate our emotions. A scene in which a gleeful Laura all but loses her mind upon hearing Zach’s song on the radio plays hysterically false; a climactic sequence stacked with dozens of reaction shots is unnecessary, because it distracts from the emotional sincerity of the song that touched millions of hearts. Clouds is a perfectly fine movie that becomes a rollercoaster when a nice, steady drive at the speed limit was working just fine.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Clouds isn’t exceptional, but it’s honest and earnest enough to be effective. Weepie rating: 9 soaked hankies (out of 10).

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Clouds on Disney+