'The Lost Bus' review: Out of control wildfire meets mediocre script

When a fast-moving wildfire traps 22 schoolchildren, a down-on-his-luck bus driver and a no-nonsense teacher must navigate a harrowing five-hour journey to safety. Does this Apple TV+ film's reliance on storytelling clichés douse its emotional fire? Detroit (tca/dpa) – An out-of-control wildfire and a bus full of schoolchildren are the only things standing between a father and his ill son in "The Lost Bus," which dramatizes the real-life 2018 Northern California Camp fire that took the lives of 85 people. Director Paul Greengrass, architect of the "Bourne" films as well as "Captain Phillips" and "United 93," does his best to create a breathless journey through the fires of hell, but his script, co-authored with Brad Ingelsby ("The Way Back"), keeps hitting speed bumps along the way. Matthew McConaughey plays Kevin McKay, a down-and-out bus driver whose life is one dead end after another. He was estranged from his father and now has a son (Levi McConaughey, the last name's not a coincidence) who is fixing to do the same with him. He can't quite seem to follow the rules laid down by his boss (Ashlie Atkinson) and is close to losing his job. He even has to put his dog down early in the movie, just as a cherry on top of his compounding misery. He's trying to close out his shift one afternoon and deliver some medicine to his sick son when a wildfire begins to ravage the hills of a nearby town. And those winds, they're a-blowing, and that fire is headed to Paradise, California, putting the entire community at risk. Kevin is the only driver near an elementary school where a group of 22 children needs to be evacuated and taken to safety. So he circles by and loads up the kids, along with teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera), who wants things done in an orderly fashion and immediately clashes with Kevin. "You wanna get there quicker, or you wanna go by the book?" Kevin asks, which is around the point when eyes begin to roll. There is already plenty of drama in the raging fires and ensuing massive traffic jams to fill a hectic adventure, and Greengrass and his team create a harrowing burnt orange landscape that looks like the pits of Mordor. But the requisite personality conflict between the two adults — McConaughey's character dismissively refers to Ferrera's character as "teach" — is a reduction of the action, as is their eventual reconciliation over shared personal traumas. Greengrass and his team pay due respect to the real-life heroism that marked that day, but "The Lost Bus" relies on storytelling cliches that continually douse its fire. "The Lost Bus" is available to stream for Apple TV+ subscribers from October 3. The following information is not intended for publication tca dpa coh

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