The tightly focused drama “The Lost Bus” is set against the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, one of the worst conflagrations in recent American history. The director Paul Greengrass has a couple of top-notch Jason Bourne thrillers on his résumé, and he’s one of those filmmakers who knows how to activate your amygdala, the part of your brain that sets off your fight-or-flight response. Here, with well-honed skills and mercenary efficiency, he seizes your attention and hijacks your emotions, creating an anxious, physically heightened experience that helps take your mind off the inanity of the writing.
For the movie, Greengrass and his co-writer, Brad Ingelsby, have plucked a survivor’s story of the disaster from the 2021 nonfiction book “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire.” Written by Lizzie Johnson, it chronicles what happened in the fire and why, through personal accounts and an analysis of the larger issues, including corporate malfeasance. One of the most terrifying stories is that of Kevin McKay, a school-bus driver who punched into work at 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2018. Sometime earlier, an old metal hook on a high-voltage transmission tower owned by Pacific Gas & Electric had broken, sparking what became known as the Camp Fire.
With agitated camerawork and brisk editing, Greengrass sets the scene, sketching in the regional backdrop, even as he narrows his sights on Kevin (Matthew McConaughey, grim and grizzled). A ragged, divorced dad going through tough times, Kevin lives in a modest house with his ailing mother (Kay McCabe McConaughey, the star’s mother) and taciturn teenager (Levi McConaughey, his son). Kevin is new to the job, which requires him to rack up miles ferrying children between their homes and elementary school. It’s a pretty area, a quintessential Northern California region dotted with onetime mining, logging and farming communities that are tucked in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Before long, Kevin notices a plume of dark gray smoke ominously rising over the area, one that will soon fill the air, turn the sky a horrific red and blot out the sun. It looks bad, but wildfires are common here — climate change has made them more so, though that scarcely rates a mention — and Kevin has a lot of on his mind mostly because the screenwriters have weighed the character down with troubles, including a hectoring ex-wife (Kimberli Flores). She primarily exists to pad the story and voice suspicions that Kevin won’t be up to the heroic task he’ll soon face. A lazy cliché, her character doesn’t do anything other than set your teeth on edge and raise doubts about the movie.
Those doubts continue to surface anytime anyone delivers the wincingly formulaic dialogue and well after all its pieces are in place, including a fire department officer, Ray Martinez (Yul Vázquez) as well as the 22 children and one teacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera), that Kevin picks up from school. By the time he does, the sky is thick with smoke, ash is swirling and people are scrambling to evacuate. Some parents, though not all, manage to grab their kids. That effectively leaves Mary and Kevin to play mom and dad to their terrified charges as the fire engulfs the area. Like many others, they’re soon trapped on roads, in a traffic jam and in a hometown that will become a deathtrap.
As Greengrass cuts among the different characters, restlessly oscillating between the larger world and the bus, the tension escalates. He’s fairly careful with how he handles the kids, but watching even fictionalized children suffer is upsetting. At this point, you should know that Kevin, Mary and the children survive. That may constitute a spoiler for some viewers, but I imagine that for those unfamiliar with the real story it may be a mercy to know that the people the characters are based on didn’t burn to death, like other residents. In total, 85 people died in the Camp Fire, and Paradise was largely destroyed.
Greengrass knows how to shoot and cut, but “The Lost Bus” is at once too high-minded and too exploitative to work. However skilled the cinematography and editing, there is no saving a movie predicated on looming death with badly written characters and such a frustratingly narrow point of view. Stories about real heroes can be reassuring, but when the villains remain as absent as they are here, it flattens the realism and turns genuine horror into a canned thriller. So, it seems worth noting that Pacific Gas & Electric had repeatedly failed to maintain the 100-year old transmission line. Since 2019, it has filed for bankruptcy, agreed to pay 13.5 billion to wildfire survivors, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of manslaughter in the Camp Fire and emerged from bankruptcy. Per a recent corporate news release for investors, it is “on track to deliver solid 2025 financial results.”
The Lost Bus
Rated R for intense fire scenes. Running time: 2 hours 9 minutes. In theaters.
Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times.
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