Richard Crouse

SYNOPSIS: Based on the non-fiction 2021 book “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire” by Lizzie Johnson, “The Lost Bus” sees Matthew McConaughey navigate a bus full of children through one of California’s deadliest wildfires.

CAST: Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vazquez, and Ashlie Atkinson. Directed by Paul Greengrass.

REVIEW: The old saying that something “spread like wildfire” is brought to literal life by director Paul Greengrass and stars Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera. Shot cinema verité style, “The Lost Bus’s” story of heroism amid the burning inferno of the 2018 California Camp Fire is an intense, you-are-there experience.

McConaughey is Kevin McKay, a struggling, divorced dad living in small town California. His son Shaun (Levi McConaughey) would rather live with McKay’s estranged wife, his elderly mother (played by McConaughey’s real-life mom Kay McCabe McConaughey) is in failing health, and even his dog is ill. His job as a school bus driver gives him barely enough hours to make ends meet.

When a spark from a downed power line erupts into an out-of-control wildfire, McKay is pressed into service. What begins as a straightforward pick-up of twenty-two kids and their teacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera), becomes a life-and-death drive into the blazing heart of the inferno.

Greengrass’s restless camera is in constant motion as he captures the fiery action, but this isn’t an action film. Instead, it’s a horror film that casts the relentless fire as the monster. If you have ever wondered how a fire can spread so quickly, so intensely, wonder no more. Greengrass’s powerful images show the flaming rampage in vivid detail. From a spark to a living hell, you can almost feel the heat coming off the screen as the flames rapidly eat up everything in their path.

Driven by the intensity of the images, the movie is an immersive experience. Add to that the inherent peril for the kids on the bus who risk being cooked alive inside the 18-ton oven and you have relentless, high stakes storytelling.

Greengrass’s visuals are top shelf, urgent depictions of the hellish inferno so it’s unfortunate the dialogue and character development don’t keep pace. McConaughey’s McKay is all struggle and furrowed brows, but the character feels like a generic everyman hero plucked from a 90s-era disaster movie.

Made for Apple TV+, “The Lost Bus” will get a short run in theatres before moving to streaming, but Greengrass clearly had the big screen in mind when composing the film’s visuals. The epic nature of the film’s fire scenes may not translate well onto smaller screens.