The Lost Bus

Similar to CAPTAIN PHILLIPS in that once the drama catches fire (as it were) there’s no stopping it – Greengrass perfectly captures the sweaty and desperate confines of the bus, and the excruciating do-or-die decisions as the heat gets turned up, and McConaughey and Ferrara are both superb as a more “everyman” spin on a Reeves-Bullock pairing; the nicely understated cut-aways to the macro of the firefighting efforts help to add drama and considerably raise the stakes. It’s a small shame that the first 20 minutes are full of almost unforgivably leaden moments of elaborate exposition – McConaughey establishes his character as a wastrel with his posture and attitude alone, leaving most of the set-up as unnecessary baggage and setting a weight on the film before it even starts. Still, so well made and largely effectively executed, that I suspect it will grow on a rewatch.