BASED on True Story or People: “The Lost Bus.” / “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” / “Escobar: Paradise Lost.” / “Polytechnique.” / “Miss Potter.” / “Last Days.”

“The Lost Bus” (2025, Apple TV+) survival drama film directed by Paul Greengrass, who co-wrote the screenplay with Brad Ingelsby. 

       This movie is based on a rescue detailed in a section of Lizzie Johnson's book “Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire” about the 2018 Camp Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, which claimed 85 lives.

       Mr Greengrass’ recreation of the disaster is terrifyingly authentic. It'd seem like the film's audience is actually there with the schoolchildren and their teachers and driver, inside the bus. You can almost feel the blazing fire and the searing heat.

       Plus an outstanding performance by Matthew McConaughey as the driver Kevin McKee and America Ferrera as the teacher Mary Ludwig.

       Recommended weekend family viewing. 🎥💻📽

“The Stanford Prison Experiment” (2015. Plex) psychological thriller about the 1971 Stanford prison experiment, a controversial psychological experiment performed in August 1971 at Stanford University. It was designed to be a two-week simulation of a prison environment that examined the effects of situational variables on participants' reactions and behaviors. The project was managed by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo.

       The mere thought of such a whacked experiment in real life, not science fiction, is already an enticing watch. But the movie, regardless of a stellar cast (Billy Crudup as Mr Zimbardo, with Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Braun) and fine ensemble performance, comes out eerily more ridiculous than what I probably imagined what happened in reality. 🎥💻📽

“Escobar: Paradise Lost” (2014, Plex) romantic thriller film, chronicles the life of a surfer who falls in love while working with his brother in Colombia and finds out that the girl's uncle is Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. First of all, this is an entirely fiction story woven in/around Pablo. Yet it's his gargantuan cloud of populist notoriety that hovers in the movie. But I can't say this is an awful feature, regardless that I find the love story hook a corny mush (sic). 

       Benicio Del Toro as Sr Escobar exudes a macabre cool that his soft, gentle voice cuts like a burning dagger to the chest. Almost as terrifying as Marlon Brando's Don Vito. Meanwhile, the extended action-suspense sequence towards the end is impressively staged. Sweet-boy Josh Hutcherson as the lovetruck Nick most of the way, redeemed himself! Cool work, all in all, by first-time director Andrea Di Stefani. And that young dude Micke Moreno who played Martin briefly was a find, indeed. 🎥💻📽

“Polytechnique” (2009, Tubi) Canadian tragedy film directed by Denis Villeneuve, based on the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre and re-enacts the events of the incident through the eyes of two students who witness a gunman murder fourteen young women. 

        Shot in black and white, under the direction of usually good but sometimes obliquely-good Denis Villeneuve, this movie is more of in-your-face reenactment than a dramatic reading of the tragic event. 

       The Killer (25-year old Marc Lepine in real life), played with icy detachment by Maxim Gaudette, is shown in early sequences as a brooding young man with “non-normal” habits such as intolerance of clutter, dirty kitchen sink and glossy (men's) magazines. That is the only part in the movie that offered sentiment. The post-tragedy sequences tried to project emotion but they seem blank and remote. Maybe that was the point or objective of the film.

       Ten years later in 1999, it was America's turn to shudder in numbing horror. Twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gunned down 13 students and 1 teacher at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. The perpetrators died by suicide. A string of mass shootings in the U.S., deadlier with more deaths, ensued in the following years. 🎥💻📽

“Miss Potter” (2006, Roku) biographical drama, based on the life of children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, and combines stories from her own life with animated sequences featuring characters from her stories, such as Peter Rabbit. 

       Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter won a Golden Globe nomination for her effort in this sweet movie. Although there are also sad sequences here, sweetness punctuates and enlivens “Miss Potter.” Plus Ms Zellweger's perennially curled lips. Which puts me in a quandary. I am not sure if I even enjoyed this otherwise finely-crafted film. It's too sweet. 🎥💻📽

“Last Days” (2005, HBO Max) drama, sort of. A Seattle musician's life and career are reminiscent of those of Kurt Cobain. Oh well. The kicker is indeed alluring and provocative but that's all there is to this bore. 

       To think that this so-called minimalist experiment was directed by Gus Van Zant, who gave us the gems “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989) and “My Own Private Idaho” (1991).

       Plot: A young musician named Blake sneaks out of a rehab clinic and walks home through a forest, also swimming through a lake then lighting a fire for the night. The next day, he gets home and changes his clothes. And so on and so forth of 1 hour and 37 minutes of drabness.

       Pretty much, that's the movie. The otherwise talented Michael Pitt is Blake. Mumbling, aimlessly wandering the yard and woods, doing nonsensical stuff in the house, dressed in a skirt. At least the sequence with the Mormons was funny in a restrained way. 

       Variety's review? “A dead-on depiction of the hedonistic rock lifestyle, punctuated by sequences of haunting beauty but also quasi-religious imagery that borders on tacky.” I guess the writer of that perfumed lie was high on shrooms when he typed up the review? 🎥💻📽