THE STORY – A wayward school bus driver and a dedicated school teacher battle to save 22 children from a terrifying inferno.
THE CAST – Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vazquez, Ashlie Atkinson, and
Spencer Watson
THE TEAM – Paul Greengrass (Director/Writer) & Brad Ingelsby (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 129 Minutes
The past decade of Paul Greengrass’s career has been underwhelming, failing to measure up to the near-perfect thriller that “Captain Phillips” was. His last feature, “News of the World,” saw Greengrass reuniting with Tom Hanks, yet the results weren’t as one would hope for. It was a modestly crafted western with two good lead performances, but even a Hanks and Greengrass reunion couldn’t have prevented it from fading through the cultural consciousness (if it even reached that far in the first place). Since then, Greengrass has been MIA as many wondered what his next venture in filmmaking would be.
Besides his outings in the “Jason Bourne” franchise, Greengrass has always excelled whenever his films focused on everyday people put through extraordinary situations. So it makes sense that “The Lost Bus,” a film set in the backdrop of the most destructive wildfire in the history of California, would be ripe for exploring the real-life heroism of one man’s attempt to save the lives of twenty-two children. Though it may not live up to some of Greengrass’s previous films, when it does work, “The Lost Bus” can be a particularly moving disaster drama, mainly due to the screen presence of Matthew McConaughey.
Audiences find themselves in the skies, floating among the wind, as we witness the instability of the power lines that are leading to the impending brush fires that merged to become the all-encompassing Camp Fire. Greengrass soon comes back down to the ground as the film focuses on McConaughey’s Kevin McKay, who is coming to blows with where his life ended up. The frustrated bus driver finds his days spent delivering kids to and from school with barely enough emotional energy and financial stability to enjoy his life. After the passing of his estranged father, Kevin’s unprompted return home to Paradise, California, has led him to be the sole caretaker of his elderly mother. Add in the consistent budding of heads with his teenage son in the aftermath of his divorce, and the fact he can’t pick up a shift to save his life, it’s more than apparent that nothing is going right. McConaughey’s ability to convey Kevin’s effort is more than welcome, as it’s clear that even with his faults, he is a man just trying to do right by those closest to him. The performance by McConaughey isn’t afraid to showcase Kevin’s vulnerability, but it’s soon bottled up as he embarks on the greatest challenge of his life.
Greengrass is consistently dialing up the tension, constantly taking us back and forth in the skies as the small fire rapidly picks up speed. His scope attempts to capture the entirety of the tragedy as the film also spends a considerable amount of time watching Yul Vasquez’s Fire Chief Ray Martinez manage the fire from his side, enlisting the help of every first responder to prevent the fire from spreading even more. While its purpose is purely for explaining to audiences the totality of the situation, it does take away from what audiences really want to see, which is Kevin’s journey. The film really begins to get going around forty minutes in, when a spur-of-the-moment decision leads to Kevin deciding to put his relationship with his son on hold to pick up an elementary class whose parents are unable to come to the school to get them. Alongside their teacher, Mary Ludwig, played by America Ferrera, Kevin begins driving through a furious inferno, battling the elements, looters, and obstacles in the road for what he hopes is a second chance to do something right in his life.
McConaughey and Ferrera are one of the few aspects of “The Lost Bus” that work efficiently despite the generic nature of it all. They bring a levity to the narrative with their performances, both equally wound up emotionally due to the high-stress scenario they find themselves in. The unlikely pair slowly bond on their road trip through hell as they both, at the end of the day, want to make sure these young children see their families again. McConaughey benefits the most due to Kevin’s characterization being prioritized, but Ferrera makes the most out of a role that others would have contributed far less to. Some of the set pieces are thrilling as Greengrass’s steadfast direction makes for an at times entertaining outing, but it’s a shame how bogged down “The Lost Bus” gets due to the artificiality of it all.
Pål Ulvik Rokseth’s cinematography, while maintaining that signature Greengrass shaky cam style, feels even more weightless. As mentioned earlier, throughout “The Lost Bus,” the camera itself becomes the wind in a way, flowing through these strong gusts that proceed to spread over the town of Paradise and the other locations around it. It’s far more CGI dependent for a Greengrass feature, or at least visibly so. There are times when “The Lost Bus” is scaled back that it looks more akin to his previous work, but Greengrass’s visual language gets far more lost around the weeds this time around.
Those who are unaware of Kevin’s story or the tragedy of the 2018 Camp Fire will most likely expect the story to play out exactly as it does. The film’s bloated runtime leads to moments of tension being rescinded in favor of focusing on outside factors away from Kevin and company, which only dispels any goodwill Greengrass builds. It’s a “true story” retelling that does its best to be as cinematic as possible, but never reaches the emotional heights that it aspires to. Greengrass can conjure up some magic in those final twenty minutes as “The Lost Bus,” on all levels, feels like it’s in rhythm. Unfortunately, by the time it does, the film is winding down to its inevitable conclusion.
