The History of Concrete
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When an inventive cult filmmaker decides to make a Hallmark-style documentary on concrete, he paves a path to something far more profound and hilarious.
Idle during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, documentarian John Wilson attends a workshop on how to make Hallmark Christmas rom-com movies. Inspired by his apartment building’s crumbling foundations, he tests this aspirational, escapist formula on the world’s love affair with concrete. Unsurprisingly, Wilson struggles to pitch his idea to prospective investors – and, fretting that he might be falling through the industry’s cracks, he takes a pilgrimage from the celebrity handprints outside LA’s Chinese Theatre to the dome atop Rome’s ancient Pantheon and more, finding surprising insights along the way.
Fans of HBO comedy series How To With John Wilson will rejoice that the director’s Sundance-premiering debut feature continues along his curious perambulation. But whether you want eccentric tales embedded in urban history or are hard-set on formalist documentaries like Architecton (MIFF 2024), Wilson delivers it all in slabs. As entertainment grows gimmickier and ever more disposable, The History of Concrete offers a rich, hearteningly humane meditation on life and death, on the things we either leave in ruins or care enough to fix.
“I doubt any movie, especially any documentary, will make me laugh harder this year, and many of its emotional grace notes land fully. Even with my high expectations, The History of Concrete is a small triumph.” – The Hollywood Reporter
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