‘The History Of Concrete’ review: US comedian John Wilson constructs an entertaining, surprising and poignant debut

Dir: John Wilson. US. 2026. 101mins

Probably the only documentary to ever draw thematic connections between Hallmark Christmas movies, affordable housing in New York City, and tattoo preservation after death, The History Of Concrete plays like a welcome continuation of John Wilson’s delightfully peculiar HBO series How To With John Wilson. As with that Emmy-nominated show, Wilson here becomes interested in a seemingly rudimentary topic but then plunges down diverse rabbit holes, finding unlikely through-lines that eventually develop into something far more grand and strange.

Wilson mines surprisingly emotional moments from his wryly comic approach

It has been three years since How To ended its three-season run, and fans of the acclaimed niche series will feel right at home with Wilson’s feature debut, which premiered at Sundance. Faithfully repeating the HBO show’s format and philosophy, Wilson sometimes struggles to make this feature-length documentary as consistently entertaining as his old series’ half-hour episodes. But he continues to mine surprisingly emotional moments from his wryly comic approach.

As its title suggests, The History Of Concrete is chiefly about the foundational building material, but the filmmaker uses it as a springboard to explore weightier issues such as creative self-doubt and life’s impermanence. As the film begins, Wilson speaks to the audience through voiceover – as he did on How To – juxtaposing his offscreen observations with amusingly offbeat New York street scenes. The filmmaker is seeking a new project, deciding to enroll in a seminar that teaches how to write Hallmark Christmas films by following the channel’s successful formula. Soon, though, Wilson becomes intrigued by concrete; something everyone has heard of but don’t know much about.

Wielding his comically ineffectual voice to offer monotone commentary, Wilson enjoys ping-ponging from one idea to the next, inviting the viewer to follow along with his unpredictable train of thought. These random digressions are often inspired by him interviewing everyday Americans who work unusual jobs or have unconventional hobbies, and their unfiltered comments will suddenly send him off in another direction. How The History Of Concrete manages, for instance, to segue from a company that will remove the tattoo of a dead loved one to musings on Los Angeles ride-share drivers’ fondness for giving advice is a large part of the film’s fun, as it was on the equally unorthodox How To.

Though ostensibly a comedy that spotlights the bizarreness of ordinary people, the documentary is never snide. Wilson finds himself hanging out on a low-budget film shoot, talking to an ageing singer whose neighbourhood is being affected by pollution, or filming a unique 3100-mile race that takes place on only one city block, and always approaches these different worlds with curiosity. As a result, the people Wilson meets open him up to new ways of thinking, and the longer he spends with them, the richer the conversations become.

Anyone familiar with Wilson’s work will safely assume that The History Of Concrete will be far from an authoritative overview on the titular topic. That said, concrete becomes a thought-provoking motif, touching on environmental concerns, its ubiquity in metropolises and its growing unreliability in recent times. The documentary is frequently funny — Wilson is especially sharp when satirising his meagre stardom in the wake of How To — but there is a current of melancholy underneath the humour.

Audiences will laugh watching Wilson try to convince investors to back a documentary about concrete, but the filmmaker is candid about the challenges of making personal art at a time when entertainment conglomerates are merging and AI threatens to strip creativity away from artists. In The History Of Concrete, Wilson’s rampant jumping from thought to thought can sometimes come across as too meandering — inevitably, some digressions end up more rewarding than others — but it also signals an anxious filmmaker wondering how to survive in an industry hostile to unconventional ideas.