by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
It’s the fall of 2018 in Paradise, California, and Kevin McCay (Matthew McConaughey) is just trying to pick up enough shifts to take care of the son he is always bickering with (Levi McConaughey) and his ailing mother Sherry (Kay McConaughey). But when a massive wildfire breaks out, he has to step up for more than just his family. He’s the only available driver who might be able to pick up a group of kids left at school. With teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera) watching over the kids too, they just might be able to escape the dangerous flames outside the yellow walls of their bus.
Here’s an epiphany I had during The Lost Bus. In the first five or 10 minutes, there’s a callout to the Dallas Mavericks beating the Utah Jazz the night before the fire. I looked it up, and the movie has the date and the score of the game dead right. Then I realized that the film takes place less than a decade ago. But then I thought about everything that has happened since then: two presidential elections, a global pandemic, and still no more novels written by George R. R. Martin. And that’s just in America. Yet it feels like no time has passed since events like this were happening. And that both works and doesn’t work for The Lost Bus, because on one hand, it validates the heroism you see, and on the other, it shrinks the magnitude of the disaster.
Apple is not known for having the most refined and lean projects (perhaps all that money from selling the most expensive phone in the world should be spent on getting some producers with a little backbone). But The Lost Bus knows what it is about. These kids are in danger, and Kevin and Mary are gonna do everything to defy the odds of the massive blazes outside. Taking this tragedy seriously, and showing off how devastating it was, gets the audience invested right away.
Getting back to that Apple money, I’ll tell you what it did buy (instead of producers with backbone): extraordinary effects and sets. When I say this movie feels like the atmosphere is on fire, it really feels like the sky is lighting up around us. The air around the bus becomes thick with smoke and blaze, adding to the fear our heroes must feel. At its absolute worst, it’s like our characters are driving through hell itself while trapped in an oven. And whatever special effects that Apple paid for work perfectly in the movie.
Another thing those signed checks from Tim Cook can cover is the salary of a megastar like McConaughey. While this is not his best performance ever, McConaughey is more than alright, alright, alright. Particularly, he brings a seriousness to the movie that adds to its tone.
But when you only compound more and more and more drama and intensity on audience, it can feel like putting on extra weight to the emotional weight bar when they’ve already lifted their personal record. I’m not arguing to add in moments of levity or comedy — that would really be inappropriate here. The only real breaks we get are when Kevin takes a call from his family, because he is focusing on helping or saving them, rather than the kids in his bus. Considering the strain on those relationships too, that’s about as much as a nice break as a compound fracture. Instead, seeing small victories like a parent finding their kid at a pickup point, or someone pulling a stray dog off a chain, would have been terrific. Denying this tragedy would be wrong, but we have to give the audience breathing room.
Rating: Liked It
The Lost Bus is currently playing in theaters
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