YOUNG MUSICIAN TAKES ON CANCER

DISNEY BUYS INTO COMING OF AGE STREAMING FILM

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The coming of age film about a teenage musician diagnosed with cancer shows the trauma the disease inflicts on an entire generation.

Fin Argus plays Zach Sobiech as a typical teen testing his self-measured confidence in Clouds (2020). Sobiech endures as best he can, despite the ongoing cancer treatment, and his family and friends rally in support.

Sabrina Carpenter plays Zach’s best friend, Sammy, while Madison Iseman plays Amy, a young teenager who is able to look beyond the illness and appreciate Zach for the perosn he continues to be.

Neve Campbell and Tom Everett Scott play Zach’s parents, Laura and Rob. 

This biopic film takes the audience through the various phases of grief as everyone involved attempts to muster on as normal  as they can.

Campbell shows particular grief as the mother losing her first born to the unforgiving illness.

Director Justin Baldoni keeps the scenes as real and natural as possible to make the film with a kind of reality television tone while also dramatizing the real life stories with actors, film sets and camera lights.

Teenagers are shown engaged in their natural lives, gradually transitioning from high school students to young adults, with the added help of social media.

Baldoni layers on top of that realism a director’s license with various camera angles and close up shots that move the narrative forward in cinema.

Argus shows how the teenager keeps his courage through a difficult cancer treatment, and generally continues on in high school as teenagers do with struggling self-esteem issues.

Carpenter plays Sammy as a best friend and a family friend but also as a talented singer songwriter bound to Zach apparently as soul mates.

Baldoni intertwines the high school narrative with the cancer treatment narrative showing how one influences the other until the two merge into one narrative compelling the story forward.

Sobiech continues on with support from various traditional sources like his parents and one or two high school friends. In one scene, Sobiech overcompensates after a difficult hospital visit by more or less high fiving every familiar face he sees in the school hallway. 

Laura takes Zach on a spiritual journey where she herself attempts to come to terms with the inevitable future.

And Rob takes Zach on a teenage journey by leasing a sports car for him to drive around and about in.

In the end, music compels everyone through the difficult journey.

Clouds is streaming on DisneyPlus.