Wildfire heroics heat up The Lost Bus, while Fish Flew Away flops

Whang Yee Ling

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(From far left) Tong Liya and Song Jia in Fish Flew Away.

(PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE)

British filmmaker Paul Greengrass dramatises headlines, whether the Sept 11 terrorist attack aboard the eponymous hijacked flight in United 93 (2006) or the 2009 hijacking of an American containership in Captain Phillips (2013).

THE LOST BUS (NC16)

130 minutes, premieres on Apple TV+ on Oct 3

★★★☆☆

The story: During the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history, bus driver Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) and schoolteacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrara) brave the blaze to navigate her students to safety.

The Lost Bus is his Hollywood adaptation of the 2021 nonfiction book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle To Survive An American Wildfire.

Harried divorcee Kevin is a recently returned Paradise native, struggling to balance the demands of his new job with those of his sick mum (McConaughey’s mother Kay McCabe McConaughey), his estranged teen son (McConaughey’s son Levi McConaughey) and his dying dog.