The so -called Camp Fire is considered one of the most devastating forest fires in the history of the United States. The Inferno, which raged in North California from November 8th to 25th, 2018, devastated more than 62,000 hectares of land. 85 human life and 18,000 buildings fell victim to him, the small town of Paradise was largely wiped out. An extreme dryness and strong winds are fitting again and again. The emergency services soon gave up to bring the fires under control and instead relied on protecting the population. There were a lot of dramatic and tragic situations – but the flame trip of a school bus with 22 elementary school students made the headlines again, especially.
A perfect fabric for the British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, who is already committed to films such as “July 22” or “Flight 93” of the possible reconstruction as possible. In terms of intensity, the Apple TV+production “The Lost Bus” is in no way inferior to the earlier films: At the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, tears flowed before tension. This is also why the survival thriller is rightly considered a potential Oscar candidate in technical categories such as sound or cut.
Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) has to offer all his driving skills to navigate his school bus through the flame sea.
After the death of his father, Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) returned to his home town of Paradise, California to take care of his mother Sherry (Kay McConaughey). In addition to his tense relationship with his son Shaun (Levi McConaughey), he also struggles with his new job as a school bus driver, after all, he hardly gets over the end.
When a devastating fire breaks out for Paradise, Kevin agreed to pick up 22 stranded elementary school students and her teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera) and to bring it to a supposedly safe collective point. But the place is already trapped by the fires. Without radio contact, Kevin desperately searches for a route through the ever closer flames …
Everything for realism
Paul Greengrass not only conjures up the greatest possible realism with the overlays of exact times and place names, but also with the use of real news and archive recordings. The fire chief John Messina and the Dispatcher Beth Bowersox, who were actually involved in combating the Camp Fire, appear part of the operational staff – and Matthew McConaughey denies the family scenes with his real mother and real son.
Dramaturgically, Greengrass and co-author Brad Ingelsby focus on the adaptation of the non-fiction book “Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive to American Wildfire” to the essentials: Even if Kevin keeps trying to call his elderly mother and sick son, no ruffled subordination is opened apart from the truthful hell trip. Instead, the fate of the characters that are not directly involved remains open to the end.
The Camp Fire is not considered one of the most devastating forest fires in US history for no reason.
With his agile hand camera, the Norwegian cameraman Pål Ulvik Rokseth is always very close to the action. While a dispute at the Mackays is still too intended to capture the Mackays, which literally bribe one and again and again with original perspectives, which are sucking into the event of the sucks of the bus and flames. So we see what is happening from the “perspective” of a spark that, after a rare breather, sparked a new fire stove – this screws up the suggestive tension even further!
The greatest possible authenticity device in the fire fervor, enriched with diabolical crackling and hissing blazing in excellent sound design: but while the CGI effects appear somewhat cheap in the event of a breaking part of a power line, overwhelming flames and almost impenetrable columns Struggle for survival and thus ensure an extremely dense and oppressive atmosphere.
Strongly occupied!
“The Lost Bus” can also score to score. Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”) alludes as a fucked-out antihero with worrying expression and deep dark circles further in the meantime against his long-outdated Schönling image. America Ferrera (“Barbie”) gives a committed and strong idea as an objective, soon desperate teacher.
However, for both only a short breath of breather remains room for “actors” in the eye of the fire storm. Otherwise, the rudimentary character drawing around the bursting life and travel dreams remains before the next stirring flame storm is swept, which must be mastered with cleverness, driving skills and a little luck in the thick smoke.
Conclusion: At “The Lost Bus” the spark definitely jumps over! The disaster thriller with a pronounced claim of realism develops an even and-in two sense of the word-crackling tension.