The Lost Bus

• Director: Paul Greengrass
• Writer: Brad Ingelsby, Paul Greengrass
• Starring: Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vazquez, Ashlie Atkinson

Grade: B

Paul Greengrass, Hollywood’s most efficient auteur of ripped-from-the-headlines dramatizations, returns with one of the most harrowing and stressful films of the year in The Lost Bus. Aside from his work on the Bourne franchise, Greengrass’s greatest successes have come from films about real people overcoming the odds to survive, like Captain Phillips and United 93. His latest covers a recent, well-publicized event, and though the life-or-death stakes are often enough to sustain the film for long stretches, it’s not enough to overcome its limitations.