Rating: R | Runtime: 130 minutes
Release Date: September 19th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Apple TV
Director(s): Paul Greengrass
Writer(s): Brad Ingelsby and Paul Greengrass / Lizzie Johnson (book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire)

It’s one fire.

I wonder if unfettered use of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) logo and vehicles in Paul Greengrass’ The Lost Bus was part of their settlement after being found culpable for the 2018 “Camp Fire” in Northern California. Not that they had any recourse for their portrayal as a result either way. It’s just weird to see an active business on-screen as a major plot point without also being thanked in the credits. CAL FIRE got all the appreciation instead.

It’s always interesting to see how sprawling, event-driven non-fiction books are adapted into fictionalized films when documentary would be the better, all-encompassing medium. Between the fire, evacuation, and investigation dealing in fault and climate change, there’s as much potential for heart-wrenching drama as emotionless procedure. So, as often happens, Brad Ingelsby sifted through the details for the best human interest story: a heroic school bus driver.

Give Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera (as the teacher chaperone) credit for maintaining stakes in a narrative whose known outcome generally erases them (let alone a majority of their screen-time being in the confines of a yellow bus). Yul Vazquez tries matching their intensity in static scenes of bureaucratic jockeying, but Greengrass’ shaky-cam can only do so much. I did love every time he yelled at a PG&E employee, though.

The real star is therefore the spectacle with faux drone-like exposition shots soaring through the blaze as embers ignite and infernos rage. The effects team truly earned that Oscar nomination because fire is generally the least believable of all computer manipulations and it looked pretty darn flawless here. All that smoke surely helped maintain an authentic fidelity because the only real rough moments were via reflections in the yellow-filtered bus windows.

I’m still unsure, however, whether to applaud the excellent child actors or question their parents for allowing them to partake in such harrowing and physical performances demanding they cry in abject fear for two straight hours.

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America Ferrera and Matthew McConaughey in THE LOST BUS, now streaming on Apple TV.