![‘The History of Concrete’ Review: John Wilson’s Feature Debut Expands on His Show’s Brilliance [Sundance]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/01102629/The_History_of_Concrete-Still_1.jpg "‘The History of Concrete’ Review: John Wilson’s Feature Debut Expands on His Show’s Brilliance [Sundance]")
How do you follow up that rarest of feats: a hit streaming docuseries that isn’t true crime? That’s the question on the mind of filmmaker John Wilson at the start of “The History of Concrete,” as he lets the audience know in his trademark nasal narration. His answer is to double down on what made “How To with John Wilson” so successful and let his instincts guide him forward and toward the real story. To steal a phrase from author David Foster Wallace, “of course you end up becoming yourself.”
“The History of Concrete” might be the most fruitful product of creative frustration converted into inspiration since Charlie Kaufman’s script for “Adaptation.” Drawing on the events of his life and career, as well as the ceaselessly expanding canvas of Wilson’s home, New York City, the documentarian builds on the brilliance of his breakout show and expands its rhythms into feature form. The artist’s curiosity and compassion thrive at any duration. Wilson can put incongruous commentary over any found image and turn it into a profound rumination, even if the combination seems too on-the-nose to possibly work.
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The project picks up with Wilson shortly after the conclusion of “How To,” which coincides with the writers’ strike of 2023. With few other outlets for creativity, he attends a guild-sponsored seminar on how to write a Hallmark movie that’s as schematic as one might envision … but not necessarily as soul-crushing as expected. Wilson decides to crib some of the cable channel’s precepts to help commercialize the subject that captures his imagination: concrete, in all its various permutations.
While the Hallmark formula provides some foundation to “The History of Concrete,” it’s by no means a grounding force that keeps Wilson away from his usual humanistic exploration. The hook acts less as a structure for the film within which Wilson’s motion is limited. It functions more like a counterpoint to his roving camera and tangential narrative, constantly reminding the audience of just how far away from the actual business of life these storytelling conventions are.
But the Hallmark can occasionally help Wilson snap the work into focus again when he really seems to have disappeared down a rabbit hole. And goodness, Wilson could make Alice in Wonderland blush with how deep he goes in “The History of Concrete.” From a power washer devoted to clearing gum off sidewalks to an entrepreneur who memorializes the tattoos of dead people, the menagerie of characters found by Wilson makes for a motley yet marvelous crew. The filmmaker’s second-person narration makes viewers feel like they’re part of the gang, imbued with Wilson’s fascination without having to worry about gawking.
Without reducing these unforgettable figures to caricatures, this gaggle of humanity all helps Wilson to discover the film as he’s making it. Concrete is the sine qua non of contemporary urban life, omnipresent yet underexamined. This material’s durability is such that it’s treated as synonymous with reality, but Wilson finds it a porous entry point into fertile existential terrain. Concrete offers a means to explore themes of recreation and preservation, memory and permanence, building and maintenance, and individual and collective ownership and responsibility within a community.
The latter element becomes especially prominent as Wilson realizes the larger relevance of his wanderings near the film’s close. “The History of Concrete” could well serve as a defining document of the Eric Adams era of New York City, especially when viewed through the prism of housing and affordability that empowered Zohran Mamdani’s rise. His discursive journey through the city’s cracking concrete leads him to City Hall to support the controversial “City of Yes” plan to boost construction.
Lest anyone think that Wilson’s documentary would devolve into a standard political issue doc, he records the announcement of the bill’s passage in an off-kilter fashion by playing with perspective. As they opine on the great future construction to come, Wilson uses his fingers to pinch the heads of then-Mayor Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul. Leave it to self-aggrandizing politicians to bring out the only example in “The History of Concrete” of Wilson having fun at someone’s expense rather than with their permission.
His love of people draws some truly eccentric figures into his orbit, and the idiosyncratic way they influence the documentary feels like the ultimate tribute to their unique power and sway. Wilson’s editing style resembles the algorithmic suck of social media, as images and ideas on-screen flow freely and seemingly without logic. But “The History of Concrete” does not succumb to the cacophony of online echo chambers, singling out voices that might otherwise talk past each other and engaging them in deep conversation.
Though Wilson’s voice takes up the most real estate in the film, he’s magnanimous in ceding the floor to those he encounters along the circuitous route to revelation – and draws clear inspiration from them along the way. “The History of Concrete” recalls Agnès Varda’s great non-fiction work in its playful, poignant tribute to the irreducibility of people. “If we opened up, we’d find landscapes,” Varda once observed, and Wilson finds enough landscapes here to fill a gallery at the Met. [A-]
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New York-based freelance journalist whose writing appears regularly on Decider, Slant, Slashfilm, and The Playlist, covering film with a focus on cultural context.
