“THE LOST BUS” My rating: A-(Apple+)
129 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Forget your chest-busting aliens and serial killers. The scariest monster I’ve ever seen on film is the fiery holocaust depicted in Paul Greenglass’ “The Lost Bus.”
Long a master of the historical recreation (“Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “United 93,” “Captain Phillips”), Greenglass here turns his attention to the 2018 Paradise fire, the devastating inferno that ripped through a wooded California town, killing more than 80 people and leaving thousands homeless.
The sneakily benign title refers to the real-life experiences of school bus driver Kevin McCay and elementary school teacher Mary Ludwig, who with a busload of 22 youngsters spent a hellish day surrounded by ever-mounting flames in a desperate search for a safe route out of the burning town.
The screenplay (by Greenglass and Brad Ingelsby) finds a few minutes in which to explore the backgrounds of these two heroes. Kevin (Matthew McConaughey) is a life-long screwup with an angry ex-wife and a teenage son who hates him. Mary (America Ferrera) is a wife and mother who has always regarded her backwoods California community as a refuge from a larger and more inhospitable world.
But the bulk of the film is an almost documentary look at what happened that day, cutting between the frantic efforts of firefighters to contain the blaze (Yul Vazquez portrays the overwhelmed local fire chief) and the efforts of Kevin and Mary to get the children to safety.
America Ferrara, Matthew McConaughey
Initially they’re far from a perfect partnership. Kevin is dismayed/angered by Mary’s calm, slow, don’t-alarm-the-kids approach to the situation; all he can think about is the red glow getting bigger in his rear-view mirror. But surrounded by flames and facing the likelihood that they’re going to die in this big yellow oven, the two find a common bond in the need to be strong for the children.
The acting is terrific without ever looking like acting.
But the real star of “The Lost Bus” is the production itself. It’s impossible here to differentiate between practical real-world effects and computer-generated imagery; they combine effortlessly to depict the horrors of that day.
“Awesome” doesn’t seem too hyperbolic a word to describe the accomplishment of cinematographer Pal Ulvik Rokseth and his editors (Peter Dudgeon, William Goldenberg and Paul Rubell). They have created a vision of flame and chaos so convincing that you almost imagine heat radiating from your TV screen.
And talk about tension! No Hitchcock movie ever had me perched so dangerously on the edge of my seat.
Seriously, folks. There were moments here so intense that even after a lifetime of moviegoing I found myself fighting the urge to freeze the action and take a break. It’s that effective.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 