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20-10-2025 Vol 19

TIFF Review: Paul Greengrass’ The Lost Bus is a Disaster Movie Master Class

In The Lost Bus, the latest propulsive and sweat-inducing disaster thriller from Paul Greengrass, a few electric sparks from a major power line hit dry weeds and spread into an uncontainable wildfire that mercilessly engulfs Paradise, California. The town’s name boasts a tragic irony––the monstrous flames of the 2018 Camp Fire turned the arid, mountainous region into a nearly unthinkable hellscape that claimed 85 lives and required $13.5 billion in damages. Based on stories that emerged from the wreckage, some taken from Lizzie Johnson’s detailed account Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, the movie counteracts the devastation by centering an act of heroism through the lens of an underdog story that functions like a temporary balm on the state’s otherwise depressing, scorched-earth reality. 

There is a lot to depict in a natural disaster like this, and Greengrass, who co-wrote the script with Brad Inglesby, darts expeditiously around burnt scenery to various emergency services and response teams. But the everyman at the heart of this overwhelming November day is Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey), a school-bus driver who has recently moved back to his hometown after laying his father to rest. When The Lost Bus begins he’s still reckoning with his dad’s death, but has even more to worry about: his dog’s cancer has spread, his son is sick and won’t speak to him, his mother can’t take care of herself, and his ex-wife berates his parenting over the phone. To make matters worse, he’s low on money, can’t convince his supervisor to get him extra shifts, and is late to a mandatory bus maintenance check. But when the smoke starts billowing, McKay’s troubled circumstances and tardiness make him the only driver eligible to change his route and pick up 23 stranded school children and their teacher Mary Ludwick (America Ferrera) and transport them to safety. It’s a potential death trap, but also a chance at redemption. 

Greengrass has such a natural feel for depicting disaster––the kind of kinetic, high-stakes action that keeps moving and escalating and pivoting––that it’s easy to forget how few directors get it right. Once upon a time, Greengrass initiated a new wave of action movies with his handheld, shaky-cam aesthetic in blockbuster hits The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, an approach he carried into a series of docudramas and non-fiction thrillers: United 93Captain Phillips, and July 22. Though his choppy and jolting style (not for everyone) has gone out of style over the last decade, he established a kind of visual vocabulary that captured the feverish, on-the-ground realities of various terror groups and those rising up to stop them. 

While the terrorist here is mother nature, Greengrass settles into his sweet spot after establishing the necessary set-up and backstories. He’s learned the formula for every active character, giving them just enough context and personality that you feel something when they encounter terrifying circumstances. And there are plenty here to keep you engaged––close-calls and near escapes that highlight a school bus’s clunky mechanics and handling in the midst of bumper-to-bumper traffic and messy intersections. Not to mention the unpredictability of the flames themselves, overheating the windows and floors and prompting the youngsters on board to freak out or nearly suffocate into silence. Greengrass doesn’t have you squirming in your seat because he’s manufacturing drama but because he knows when to cut, when to slow down, when to fire on all cylinders. 

This sounds like a science, but it’s actually an art. Yet much of that distinction relies on the people maneuvering through the disaster. Greengrass is lucky to have McConaughey, who has always seemed like a natural in heightened scenarios. The rare movie star who can wear dirt and a baseball cap and fit into a blue-collar community without a raised eyebrow, McConaughey sells the horror through the windshield with a slack-jawed, ultimately decisive leadership. It pairs well with Ferrera, who enters the bus a bit naive to the developing firestorm while keeping a level of cool through the calamity for her students’ sake. That’s not always an easy interplay to capture, but the movie’s best moments take place when each of them has to venture out of their established responsibilities––to scout a fire, find resources, get behind the wheel, or settle down a group of kids screaming in terror. In a situation prone to capturing an exaggerated clumsiness or anxiety to heighten the stakes, it’s refreshing to watch two characters adapt to their environment with a determined, plausible effort. Greengrass knows the situation is already dire; he doesn’t need to drum up needless histrionics for an emotional payoff. 

Maybe the most effective decision Greengrass makes is that he personifies the wildfire, sprinkling in POV shots using a windswept camera that sprints through the mountains, across power lines, and over busy roads. The director positions the flames as the true antagonist of this film, and the choice adds a more visceral effect to the fire’s unpredictable qualities. But the decision also paints a contrast to the slow-moving and squeaky bureaucratic wheels meant to prevent these kinds of calamities. Ultimately, Pacific Gas & Electric pled guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter and one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire. The Lost Bus is a brutal reminder of what’s at stake every time a glowing ember catches a gust of wind, and how helpless even the most heroic forces can feel against mother nature’s escalating wrath.

The Lost Bus premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and opens in theaters on Friday, September 19 and arrives on Apple TV+ on October 3.

The post TIFF Review: Paul Greengrass’ The Lost Bus is a Disaster Movie Master Class first appeared on The Film Stage.

Filip

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