In the final scene of 2013’s Captain Phillips, Tom Hanks’ titular character is being examined by a nurse. It’s a harrowing scene, not just because of the Oscar-winning actor, but largely due to the nurse– Danielle Albert, a real-life medic.
That realism in The Lost Bus is tenfold here, literally.
There are 10 actors credited as themselves playing firefighters to help tell the story of school bus driver Kevin McCay’s heroics during California’s deadliest wildfire. With their help, director Paul Greengrass weaves an urgent film unlike any other.
But they’re hardly all that make The Lost Bus feel so vibrant and visceral. From top to bottom, everyone is on their A-game. And yes, that includes Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey. I’d go so far as to say he’s on par with both that winning role and his now iconic True Detective performance.
He’s a different breed here. McConaughey is nothing but charismatic in real life, and his performances often feed off that charm. But playing this reluctant hero, this broken man trying to fix his life that has led to a dead-end job and a son who hates him? This man who has to put his dog down in the first scene?
This is the most human we have ever seen him. It’s not saccharin or emotionally manipulative, either. It’s a performance that feeds off the physicality needed to steer the story along with his sensitive moments as a real-life father.
And for that matter, just as the real-life firefighters add to the film’s layers, the casting of McConaughey’s son Levi McConaughey and his mother Kay McConaughey? Pitch perfect.
But all of these moments are only made possible by Greengrass’s superb direction.
Aside from one or two shaky cam moments (notably the worst scenes of the film where the fire’s origin is shown in less than perfect CGI), he has a remarkably steady hand here, weaving the story between McConaughey’s titular bus along with a superb America Ferrera, and the fire team. But oddly, the movie reaches a fever pitch in its quieter, more reflective moments for McConaughey. The action is first class, but it’s the intimacy and still moments that bring it all together.
Composer James Newton Howard’s work also contributes, once again working at what I’d consider some of his best work. No small claim for a nine-time Oscar nominee.
But let’s cut to the chase. At the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, I told a writer friend that we had just seen my favorite movie of the year.
Is it the best? I’m not sure I can be so bold as to say that– I’m a stickler for making a distinction between the favorite and best. But it sure belongs in the conversation. And as I sit here this morning, I don’t regret telling director Paul Greengrass that it’s the best movie of 2025.
It’s the movie I think he has been trying to make for his entire career.
