The Lost Bus

After five years of stymied projects, Paul Greengrass has returned with something that should be right in his comfort zone: a fact-based drama set during a notorious disaster. It’s character-based and non-sensationalised, and politically tinged in its approach to the world. But this isn’t quite as sure-handed as usual, lingering on details that don’t add to the story and underselling some that do.

The film initially feels almost retro in its slow build, with ominous establishing shots of the arid brush and the tense hum of James Newton Howard’s score. You’d swear Greengrass was referencing Volcano or some other ’90s disaster movie, making a monster out of the wind itself. But then he and his co-writer, Brad Ingelsby, spend the next 45 minutes lavishing time and attention on the sorry facts of school-bus driver Kevin McKay’s (Matthew McConaughey) life, with a sick, bereaved mother and a teenage son who hates him (played, in a meta twist, by McConaughey’s own mum and son). He’s underperforming, unpopular and on the edge. If anything, it’s too much time with the character; it begins to feel like misery piling on misery rather than the backstory to a story of heroism.

The fire scenes are genuinely thrilling and often terrifying to watch.

When a local wildfire builds from scattered sparks to raging inferno, McKay’s time to shine finally comes, despite his deep reluctance. He is sent to collect 22 kids and their teacher, America Ferrera’s Mary Ludwig, for what should be a simple drop-off at the nearest evacuation point. But with everyone trying to flee town, the traffic is impassable, and they end up on a lengthy, dangerous route to safety, navigating small fires and the building smoke and heat. These scenes are genuinely thrilling and often terrifying to watch, especially with small children in peril.

Context for their situation is provided by the fire chief (Yul Vazquez) and his crew who are trying to manage the emergency back at a spot we can only assume is called Exposition HQ; those characters are all mere sketches and could have been filled out to better effect. They’re essentially narrating something that is not really an action film; the most horrifying moments come when the bus is dead still.

McKay and Ludwig often can’t do much more than try to keep the kids calm and inch through the smoke. The fire is everywhere and spreading faster than anyone can follow. It’s a thorough rejection of the sort of bombast that would have followed in those ’90s movies, the overblown heroism and posing, as Greengrass suggests that sometimes all we can do is try to survive, and help others do the same. It’s an undeniable truth, but it does sometimes blunt the drama.