Apple TV+ Wants To Make You Cry… But In A Good Way: At The Movies With Kasey
Apple TV+ has two new movies this month that look at love under unusual, sometimes catastrophic circumstances. In one, a man tries for a second chance at being a good father while driving a school bus through fire. In the other, two friends pine for each other, questioning what makes a soulmate.
Based on a true story, The Lost Bus follows driver Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) and a dedicated schoolteacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera), as they evacuate 22 students during the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California. The fire breaks out as Kevin is already having a terrible day. He moved back to his hometown after his father’s death, and his attempts at rebuilding trust with his mother and teenage son are faltering. His dog also dies of cancer, which really feels like laying it on thick.
As Kevin goes about his morning route, his mother and ex-wife call him repeatedly about a stomach bug his son has, and their disruptions come when Kevin’s boss, Ruby (Ashlie Atkinson), has run out of patience. This bad morning establishes a sense of how down and stressed Kevin feels, struggling to be there for the people he loves, but should he really lose his job to rush home to give his 14-year-old son Tylenol?
This lengthy exposition, against the backdrop of a wildfire rapidly escalating, dramatizes the notion that a person who cannot be trusted in the small things cannot be trusted with great things. Yet, Matthew McConaughey’s performance supports Kevin’s angst with such tenderness mixed with frustration that I really wanted Kevin to pull through for himself, as well as the 22 children he steps up to evacuate.
As the children’s teacher, America Ferrera also portrays her character’s fears and disappointments with a quiet strength many of us might recognize from people we know who excel at taking care of children. There is a muted quality to both her and McConaughey’s performances that oddly works together. Neither character has big, emotional outbursts, but given the hugeness of the situation, their calm makes them even more heroic and compelling as individuals.
Ashlie Atkinson gives a surprisingly emotional performance as Ruby, providing a character who initially seems flat with depth that adds to the human drama. And as Chief Martinez, valiantly trying to manage resources to put out the fire and save lives, Yul Vazquez brings a frank toughness.
These understated performances are contrasted with incredibly intense special effects, which effectively depict the catastrophic force of the fire. The Lost Bus is stressful to watch from start to finish, building to a climax that will make your heart palpitate with a stunning action sequence.
The Lost Bus was written by Brad Ingelsby and Paul Greengrass, who directed. The screenplay is based on the book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by Lizzie Jonhnson. It runs 129 minutes and is rated R.
Set in the near future, All of You opens with best friends Simon (Brett Goldstein) and Laura (Imogen Poots) as Laura takes “The Test,” meant to determine who her soulmate is. The two have feelings for each other, which they have kept to themselves, but as they each embark on serious relationships, the unspoken longing threatens to undermine not only their romances but their friendship itself.
All of You pulls at threads about modern love and dating as Simon believes in finding his match the old-fashioned way and Laura represents the promises of technology to simplify answering our most human questions. Furthermore, the depth of their friendship begs questions about who and what a soulmate really is in the first place.
Laura finds a box stuffed with love letters her late father kept from a woman he corresponded with while she was a child. Instead of being with the woman he really loved, her father stayed with her and her mother because they were a family. The scene anchors the themes around love, desire, and loyalty for the rest of the story. As in Materialists earlier this year, the merits of different types of relationships are debatable, but ultimately, I wanted to knock Laura and Simon’s heads together and tell them to snap out of it.
Imogen Poots and Brett Goldstein give beautiful performances and have searing chemistry together. The cinematography employs a neutral and dark green color palette that lends the story an almost vintage look, despite being set in the future. The writing works with intricate and heartfelt issues. But, ultimately, these characters make such frustrating choices that, whereas many people cried at the twists in their love story, I yelled at my TV.
And yet, because it was so well-crafted and thought-provoking, my husband and I talked about the film for days after watching it. We wondered if the story is not itself a sort of test, revealing to audiences how they feel about their own relationship status through their response.
All of You was written by Brett Goldstein and William Bridges, who directed. It runs 98 minutes and is rated R.
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