Movie Review: THE LOST BUS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: September 16th, 2025 / 01:24 AM

THE LOST BUS movie poster | ©2025 Apple Original Films

Rating: R
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vasquez, Ashlie Atkinson, Kimberli Flores, Levi McConaughey, Kay McConaughey, Kate Wharton, Peter Diseth, Denielle Fisher Johnson
Writers: Brad Ingelsby and Paul Greengrass, based on the book PARADISE: ONE TOWN’S STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE AN AMERICAN WILDFIRE by Lizzie Johnson
Director: Paul Greengrass
Distributor: Apple Original Films
Release Date: September 19, 2025 (theatrical), October 3, 2025 (Apple TV+)

In 2018, the Northern California town of Paradise, population approximately 27,000, was the victim of what was, at that time, the deadliest fire in the state’s history. Eighty-five people died and 13,500 homes were destroyed.

THE LOST BUS is an action drama based on the book PARADISE: ONE TOWN’S STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE AN AMERICAN WILDFIRE by Lizzie Johnson. Directed by Paul Greengrass (of the harrowing fact-based UNITED 93 and several BOURNE movies, among others) and scripted by Brad Ingelsby and Greengrass, THE LOST BUS covers the tragedy from inception to conclusion, including showing how the fire department, headed up by Chief Martinez (Yul Vasquez), strategizes and copes.

However, per the title, the focus of THE LOST BUS is on Paradise District school bus 963, its driver Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey), elementary school teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera) and the twenty-two second-graders they are trying to shepherd to safety.

To be clear, the bus is not lost in terms of Kevin not knowing where he is or where he’s going, except perhaps metaphorically. The day of the fire, Kevin is at low ebb. He has had to put his elderly dog to sleep, he is still dealing with the impact of his father’s death months earlier, his teen son Sean (played by McConaughey’s real-life son Levi McConaughey) despises him, and local director of school transportation Ruby Bishop (Ashlie Atkinson) is on Kevin’s case for being tardy.

When Paradise Elementary needs to be evacuated, Kevin is set to pick up the children from Mary’s classroom. Mary wants to go collect her own son from high school, but Kevin insists she accompany her students so she can stay with them until their parents can pick them up from the designated drop-off point.

However, the fire cuts off communications, with the result that neither Ruby nor emergency services can contact the bus or even figure out where it is. This in turn means that Kevin never gets the frantic messages from Ruby et al that the drop-off point has been abandoned because it’s engulfed in flames.

Greengrass displays his customary talent for creating naturalistic urgency. The journey of the bus is engrossing and frequently terrifying. The surrounding catastrophe is upsetting but kept in balance for the film’s purposes, so that we feel sorrow and loss but are never so overwhelmed that we lose our investment in the bus.

It could be argued that we spend slightly more time with Kevin’s sad-sack introduction than is strictly necessary. Indeed, given the totality of the piece, it seems like we could have used a little more of Mary with her students.

This is a minor complaint, as once we are on the road, we’re wholly engaged. McConaughey sheds his customary confident demeanor to give us a man who rises to the occasion by degrees. Ferrera is perhaps asked to do too much screaming – same for the kids – but it’s appropriate to the circumstances. Otherwise, she makes Mary the kind of teacher we hope would be in every classroom in the nation, kind, caring and able to come up with comforting solutions on the spot.

Vasquez and Atkinson both impress with their understated veracity, and Kate Wharton is likewise convincing as the fire chief’s main advisor.

Kevin McKay and Mary Ludwig are both real people (kindergarten teacher Abbie Davis was also on the real bus with her students, but it is understandable that the filmmakers wanted to get the characters down to a manageable amount). THE LOST BUS is a fitting tribute to their efforts and those of the emergency services – and a condemnation of the corporate irresponsibility that caused the disaster.

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