13/10/25

Apple TV+

A new release from Paul Greengrass is always worth further investigation, even though The Lost Bus, financed by Apple TV+, was only granted a fleeting cinematic release, so we’re obliged to catch it via streaming. Loosely based on a true story, it’s centred around the 2018 Camp Fire – a strangely innocuous name for what was actually the deadliest fire in Californian history, which claimed the lives of 84 people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

Matthew McConaughey, looking like a walking personification of the word ‘grizzled’, plays Kevin McKay, a down-on-his-luck school bus driver, based in the ill-named town of Paradise. Struggling to look after his invalid mother, separated from his wife and failing to communicate with his teenage son, Shaun (Danny McCarthy), Kevin has acquired something of a bad reputation. He is the driver who’s always running late, who often fails to fill out in his paperwork on time, and who’s constantly at odds with his dispatcher, Ruby (Ashlee Atkinson).

But when a deadly wildfire erupts in the California hills and high winds disperse the flames across a wide area, a class of twenty-two children and their teacher, Mary (America Ferrara), find themselves stranded at their elementary school. Ruby puts out a desperate call for someone to go to their aid – and the only person available to collect them is Kevin.

Sensing an opportunity for redemption, he heads for the school and picks up his passengers. But getting them to safety is no easy matter…

Greengrass sets out his stall from the opening scenes, presenting the fire’s inception. An electrical cable, pulled from a high tower by the rising wind, ignites the surrounding brush. From that point onwards, the blaze is presented as a hungry predator, rushing back and forth across the landscape, searching out its next target. It’s an inspired approach to the subject, one that inspires dread.

Just one day after watching the terrifying A House of Dynamite, I find myself once again plunged headlong into the realms of Stressville. But this being a true story, I can at least have the reassurance that there’s going to a happy ending… right?

Greengrass, who co-wrote the screenplay with Brad Inglesby, certainly keeps me guessing for a lot longer than is comfortable. His expert handling of the wildfire scenes, fuelled by Pål Ulvik Rokseth’s immersive cinematography, makes for exhilarating viewing as Kevin steers his rickety bus through what increasingly resembles the seventh circle of hell. (Note: no children were harmed in the making of this film. Honestly.)

McConaughey and Ferrara make an interesting chalk-and-cheese double act and, while some of the kids are allowed to be cute, they are never too shmaltzy. My only niggle is with the dialogue from the scenes featuring the fire team who are trying to handle the disaster, which veers uncomfortably close to exposition – but that’s a nitpick. The steadily mounting chaos keeps me on tenterhooks for the film’s entire two-hour running time.

All in all, this is an assured piece of action filmmaking, which highlights many of Greengrass’s distinctive hallmarks. I just wish I’d had an opportunity to view it on the big screen.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney