‘The Lost Bus’ review: Matthew McConaughey brings movie star swagger to real-life disaster drama

The real story behind The lost bus is more foreign than fiction. More precisely, His premise looks like something dreamed of by a screenwriter in the late 90s, when disaster films like Twister, volcano, And Deep impact were fashionable. An average Joe with problems of his own heroically uses his skills in blue collar and local praise to save a bus full of children blocked by a forest fire. And the cherry on top? This community which is on fire is called Paradise.

Again The lost bus is based on the true history of the school bus driver Kevin McKay, who, on November 8, 2018, saved 22 students from the Primary School of Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive forest fire in the history of California to date. In the cinematographic version of McKay’s life, the details will be modified for a dramatic effect. And this courageous Everyman makes Hollywood shine, played by Matthew McConaughey. However, director Paul Greengrass, who co-written the script with Brad Ingelsby, is fighting against a full-fledged disaster film.

So, which could have been a spectacle, channeling real heroism in the Derring-Do Derring dynamic of an American action hero, becomes rather a rocky stroll, turning into the Maudlin for a moment and the theatrical threat the next. The result is a film that is captivating, but only in weights.

The lost bus Cherry-Cicks Grit and Glamor.

Credit: Apple TV +

When a forest fire spreads faster than firefighters cannot manage it, school evacuations are called so quickly that some parents cannot reach their children in time. Thus, the bus deposit sends Kevin (McConaughey), who has open seats and a determination to bring these children – and Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera), the teacher who takes care of them – with security, that it means crossing disturbed routes or boosting daring detours.

Regarding the representation of fire by the film, Greengrass is devoted to instill terror. The scenes from a city of California Burning are represented as a war zone. Smoke has a sunny day like night. The fire rages, making a street once comfortable unrecognizable. Civilians flee, screaming and even trying to divert vehicles through violence. This same attention to the gravity and the strength of forest fires extends to the faces of children on Kevin bus. While Mary and Kevin warn them to stay away from the windows, their cheeks are smeared with soot. Their eyes are weary of tears and exhaustion.

The most effective to cross the fire of fear should instill is the use by the director of photography Ulvik Rokseth of POV photos For The fire. Starting low on the ground in Brush, they initially recall the shots of Slashers like Michael Myers, looking at their unconscious victims. But as the intensity increases, the height and the speed, suggesting the soil of the wind and how it transports the flames further and further. Until finally, the fire pov goes up in the air, moving like a descending dragon. It is a well -used well used, because this device establishes the power position that fire has on people, who can only run or burn.

On the other hand, Greengrass tries to found the drama of the infrastructure of the rescue teams by cutting children from the flame to a conference room several times, flanked by firefighters and other municipal authorities. These scenes are so heavy in terms of exposure that they put the tension to a dead stop. And the trial and error of the lines of the actors in these scenes could be supposed to feel naturalistic, but turns out to be clumsy – in particular unlike Ferrera and McConaughey.

Even dressed in relaxed outfit with make -up to make them look less breakfast and more hagard, they have the presence capable of film stars – and the teeth too. This is actually distracting on McConaughey, because the film makes such a length to emphasize the poverty and the lack of personal care that his character practices, but he has perfectly straight pearly whites.

It could be overlooked was The lost bus A film like Armageddon Or Independence dayWhere everything is increased – including the appearance of average Americans. But here, each flash of these pearly whites is a reminder that The lost bus aims to be based on his heroic … while maintaining a Hollywood shine. It looks like two films in combat with each other, and the conflict kills commitment.

The lost bus is slyly misogynistic.

Before the fire, Greengrass and INGELSBY take great difficulty in how Kevin has hard. In the first act, he faces conflicts with his mother, his ex -wife, his boss, a pharmacist and his son – and all except the last of these people are women.

Thanks to the casting, Greengrass has set up that this traditionally virile man, who tries to provide for his family, must face emasculation in each turn. His mother is a burden. His ex-wife is a NAG. His boss, Ruby (Ashlie Atkinson), will not give him the overtime he needs to reach both ends (even if she rationally explains why it is not possible), and the pharmacist of a small convenience store dares to be on the phone when he rushes to demand help. If I remember correctly, even the veterinarian who calls to tell him that his beloved dog must be killed is a woman.

In addition to proving that Kevin has a lot (of harm), it also establishes Kevin as a man who needs to reveal himself, proving that he is a man who can repel all these female forces that overwhelm him. So, when he arrives at school and meets Mary, he decreases her by calling her “Madame” and “Teaching” – anything but the name she gave her.

During their dangerous trip, Kevin’s attitude improves to Mary, while she wins her respect by her composure and endurance. The film even briefly seems to flirt with a romantic intrigue (Speed ​​3: Fire in paradise), although this cliché is abandoned as enthusiasm as what is suggested. However, this framing of Kevin against each woman in paradise (and beyond, as her ex is a telephone call), positions, positions The lost bus Like a story of redemption to strictly machismo terms.

In the start of the film, Kevin fears that he is a failure as a son, husband and father. But this rescue – which relates to any of these roles – is supposed to buy it? It’s a bit confusing. What McKay real has done is incredibly heroic. What Kevin does on the screen is also, but is tainted by Chauvin politics that see the value in bravery mainly if it validates the identity of a man as a protector. And yet, the most convincing performance comes from one of Kevin’s supposed antagonistic.

Ashlie Atkinson fled with The lost bus.

I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know Atkinson’s work on The golden age Like Mamie Fish. But in The lost busIt carries so much dramatic weight with each breath I may need to start a frenzy. On paper, the role of Ruby is thin. She is the director of the bus deposit paradise, responsible for the allocation of routes and overtime, as well as the organization of maintenance controls and – apparently – evacuations when the need comes.

When Kevin approaches her, it is with a facade of kindness, pleading a bloody story to convince her to fold the rules on overtime for the benefit. His answer is delivered gently, but firmly. His eyes are open, but reflecting a barely veiled warning: not today. His answer is Fury, but the one he takes with him through the door.

In a scene, Atkinson represents a woman I have seen many times. Ruby is in a workforce dominated by men, often considered with a feigned politeness which is in fact a kind of infantilization! And when she returns to the film, trying again and again to place a chaos order, I was invested each time. While Kevin fights against a fight against furious nature, Ruby fights against emotional war to comfort parents pending without providing false hope. Between this and the role of Mary to keep the children on the bus calm and alive, green food must have a certain awareness that the difficult moments with a determination and a grain in locking eyes are not everything it takes to save the day.

Now, in the end, Greengrass offers a reward, Kevin making brief amendments with some of the women who had been painted like his antagonists. But as the title cards reveal the facts on what followed, the misogynistic inclination of history feels even more in its place.

The lost bus is a strange film. Sometimes Greengrass embraces cinema theaters in the event of a catastrophe of the 90s who can give a Catharsis audience by the hero’s survival on apparently impossible dimensions. Sometimes it is inexplicably fascinated by the strategies of the control room which take place with all the excitement of a business meeting.

At times, he clearly appreciates the incredible character work of the support actress Ashlie Atkinson, whose dynamic portrait of a woman blue passes making her part (and her goodest!) Is so moving that he alone saves this film of her regressive sexist messaging alone. But in the end, Greengrass promotes a sentimentality for an old -fashioned brand of toxic macho identity. SO, The lost bus – Despite his best efforts to celebrate an everyday hero – becomes a disorderly trip of rancid masculinity.

The lost bus was examined of his first at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film will open at a limited release on September 19 and will make its debut on Apple TV + on October 3.