On Screen: “The Lost Bus”
The Lost Bus
FACT: The 2018 Butte Country Camp Fire in Northern California was one of the worst in that state’s history, burning more than 150,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills and killing 85 people. It started when a metal hook on an old Pacific Gas & Electric high-voltage transmission tower broke, igniting the conflagration.
FICTION: Based on journalist Lizzie Johnson’s book “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire,” co-writers Paul Greengrass and Brad Inglesby interweave a real school bus driver’s dilemma into a suspense-filled thriller.
Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) is a down-on-his-luck divorced dad, living with his ailing mother (Kay McCabe McConaughey, Matthew’s real-life mom), resentful teenager (Levi McConaughey, Matthew’s real-life son) and dying dog.
According to his dispatcher boss (Ashlie Atkinson), Kevin is a relatively new hire, but his is the only empty school bus available to pick up 22 elementary school kids stranded by the wildfire and deliver them to a safe point for parental pick-up.
The children are accompanied by their compassionate teacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera), who keeps them as calm and orderly as possible under the circumstances.
As director, Paul Greengrass (“United 93”) knows exactly how to ramp up tension with handheld cameras and rapid cutting, then defuse it — if only momentarily — before ramping it up again — while Kevin copes with backed-up traffic as panicked evacuees overflow the only available roads, along with engine trouble, swirling ash and the deadly, rapidly spreading blaze.
Meanwhile, Mary must deal with the increasingly overheated, under-hydrated youngsters. And, as a somewhat unnecessary distraction, Kevin’s son falls ill, precipitating an accusatory call from his ex-wife which ignites Kevin’s memories of his own estranged, recently deceased father.
Kudos to cinematographer Pal Ulvik Rokseth and editing team, led by William Goldenberg, who cut back and forth between Kevin’s bus and Cal Fire’s beleaguered Battalion Chief (Yul Vazquez).
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Lost Bus” is an explosive, survivalist 7 — streaming on Apple TV+.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.