What to watch: Horror, courage fuel Camp Fire movie ‘Lost Bus’
A tense re-creation of the Camp Fire out this week is well worth your time; but a return from retirement by one of our greatest actors is sadly a misfire.
And this week’s breakout performance comes from a golden retriever.
Here is our roundup.
“The Lost Bus”: Paul Greengrass’ gripping account of an actual rescue during the devastating 2018 Camp Fire firmly fits into a must-see-it-in-a-theater category. Sadly, after a minor theatrical release it’s landing this week on Apple TV+. If you see it, try to experience it on as big a screen as you can find — with a killer sound system. Greengrass again gives audiences a full-on sensory experience and it’s one that throws us into chaos of a raging, fatal firestorm, and it makes us feel like we’re in the thick of it with incredible visual effects, piercing, crackling and snapping sound effects and a jittery docudrama style that keeps us on edge. Expect every last nerve to get frayed as wayward school bus driver Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey) and teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrara) ride through Dante’s inferno to deliver 22 elementary school kids to safety. Greengrass charts the fire from its start to its smoldering finish and while that provides white-knuckling action, “The Lost Bus” avoids being exploitative and serves as evidence of the valor of Cal Fire and other first responders and also looks at the genesis of the fire and the role that PG&E played in it. For the most part, it colors in the same lines of Greengrass’ previous films: “22 July,” “Captain Phillips” and “United 93.” McConaughey and Ferrara make a formidable team, but it is the fire that dominates, along with how it depicts everyday people emerging to do something heroic. “The Lost Bus,” based on “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wilderness,” has a relentless sense of power that you can’t ignore, be it on a small or big screen. Details: 3½ stars; drops Oct. 3 on Apple TV+.
“Anemone”: Two of the best performances of the year get hamstrung in director/co-screenwriter Ronan Day-Lewis’ pretentious debut, a yakity-yakity talker that gets dragged down by an obtuse screenplay — co-written by star Daniel Day-Lewis. The film is think with dialogue but reveals way too little at the same time. Day-Lewis, the father of Ronan, breaks out of an eight-year retirement for this project and is ferocious and commanding as surly and feral recluse Ray — a man with demons warring inside and out. His estranged brother Jem (Sean Bean) treks through arduous terrain in Northern England to retrieve his sibling since he’s needed home due to his teen-ager son Brian’s (Samuel Bottomley) trouble after a brawl. Brian’s anguished mom (Samantha Morton) awaits Ray’s return with dread and a wee bit of hope. Once Jem enters Ray’s remote, Spartan cabin in the woods, a whirlwind of indiscretions, family legacies, abusive authority figures, and even past dealings with the IRA get revisited through conversations told mostly near the fireplace. But all those grim revelations and troubles rarely connect with us since there’s no precise context for it — questions such as why does everyone feel it’s so urgent to drag the reluctant Ray back never get resolved. Instead of cohesion and enlightenment we get drawn-out monologues –delivered to the hilt mostly by Daniel Day-Lewis — on matters that even include the various grades and quality of excrement unleashed in a past humiliating act of revenge. Ugh. To its credit, Bean’s performance as the less monologue-prone brother is one of his finest hours and the foreboding cinematography by Ben Fordesman along with Ronan Day-Lewis’ own background as a painter makes it a visual wonderland. But there’s just no emotional payoff here since all of what happens is so vague and disconnected. It doesn’t help that “Anemone” suddenly ventures into magical realism, and is left, like its viewers, gasping like a fish out of water. Details: 1½ stars; opens Oct. 3 in select theaters and expands Oct. 10.
“Hotel Costiera”: Anyone else feel like they could use a relaxing trip to Italy right now? We know, your heart says go but your wallet says no. If so, the next best thing might just be binging all six episodes of Amazon Prime’s latest mood quencher, “Hotel Costiera.” It’s almost as good as sipping an Aperol Spritz served up by a handsome guy on a sunny beach in Positano. Almost. Speaking of handsome, Jesse Williams (“Grey’s Anatomy”) steams up the screen as Daniel De Luca, a former Marine employed as an, ahem, fixer who takes care of the mischief that goes down at a swanky hotel. Each episode finds Daniel and his diverse spy-like team investigating an assortment of crimes while searching for Alice, the missing daughter of the hotel’s owner. The team consists of the alluring, purpose-driven Genny (Jordan Alexandra); the hilarious and dapper Brit name-dropper Tancredi (Sam Haygarth) and the no-nonsense Bignè (Antonio Gerardi). Williams gives Danny — or DD, as he’s nicknamed — dimension to spare, creating one of the most affable leads on any show running right now. Heck, the entire cast is irresistible, and “Hotel Costeira” nicely balances the beauty of the Amalfi Coast with humorous but compelling plots and subplots. Details: All six episodes available on Amazon Prime.
“Good Boy”: In what should be remembered as one of the best, certainly most unexpected, breakout performances of 2025, Indy the adorable golden retriever not only steals hearts and expresses worry and fear better than most humans, but indicates he is barking up the right tree with this acting thing. Indy is director/co-screenwriter Ben Leonberg’s adorable 8-year-old pet, and he’s perfectly cast as Indy, the extra-loyal canine companion of a sickly man (Shane Jensen) who has returned to the haunted cabin that belonged to his dead grandfather (horror icon Larry Fessenden),which is stocked with dread and old VHS horror classics and home videos. Leonberg shoots his minor miracle of a horror film — a true original that runs a fleet 72 minutes — from Indy’s POV and it gives the debuting director a novel opportunity to view the harsh nature of the human world through the always forgiving eyes of a four-legged friend who will do just about anything for his human. That “Good Boy” is both heartbreaking and chilling is a credit to the director and his dog. Also: It’s scary, not gory. Details: 3 stars; open Oct. 3 in theaters.
“Bone Lake”: Films that address hidden horrors in intimate relationships have become almost a genre unto itself. Drew Hancock’s “Companion” earlier in the year touched a nerve with its tale of callous techie modern love, while Michael Shanks’ gooey stuck-on-you body horror enterprise “Together” made us squirm and laugh and wonder about the person next to is in bed. Here, screenwriter Joshua Friedlander and director Mercedes Bryce Morgan add more kink, throwing in various sex toys along with fleshy temptations for a wicked game played around lust. Repressed desires and two naked, toned bods conspire to threaten an on-the-cusp-of-something relationship between Sage (Maddie Hasson) and Diego (Marco Pigossi. The two vacationers get unexpected company while on a weekend getaway at a sprawler of a remote estate. Their libidos heat up with the arrival of preppy-looking hunk Will (Alex Roe) and flirtatious beauty Cin (Andra Nechita). The first part of “Bone Lake” acts like a big tease and dives into the tangled sexual sides of all involved, and are the best parts of the film. But even when “Bone Lake” reveals its deadly hand and then goes bonkers, it does so with a tongue in cheek and a razor-sharp wit. It also offers its four actors a chance to shine. Details: 3 stars; opens Oct. 3 in theaters.
“Plainclothes”: Director/screenwriter Carmen Emmi’s compassionate debut benefits from being anchored by a sensitive and heartfelt performance from Tom Blyth (“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”). He plays an undercover cop who discovers he is gay, and his nascent attraction finds a home to roost in with one of his targets, an attractive, married man (Russell Tovey) that’s shadowing in a shady bathroom sting operation. The two can’t deny that they’re drawn to each other, but Lucas (Blyth) wants to deny who he is. Emmi’s film is set in ‘90s Syracuse and does a fine job of creating that era as well as the courage it takes for Lucas to admit to his true feelings. It’s a solid debut, even though in its final moments it feels rushed and choppy. Details: 3 stars; opens Oct. 2 at Saratoga 14, San Jose; Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Berkeley; Apple Cinemas Van Ness, San Francisco.
— Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.