Review: "The History of Concrete" lets filmmaker John Wilson apply his elliptical storytelling to a broad topic — our quick-setting culture
In a recent list of the 100 greatest TV shows of the 21st century, The New York Times ranked the documentary series “How To With John Wilson” at No. 80, saying that “Wilson’s free-associative journeys are by turns comedic and melancholic” — which is a good description of Wilson’s movie-length documentary “The History of Concrete.”
Wilson takes a minute to get to his movie’s titular subject. First he talks about his beloved New York, the end of his HBO series, and his brushes with being a semi-recognized celebrity. (This last bit is demonstrated when he’s the topic of a clue on “Jeopardy!”, and no one guesses his name.) During the Writers Guild of America strike in 2023, Wilson takes part in a seminar about one of the most lucrative types of screenwriting out there today: Writing holiday romances for the Hallmark Channel.
Eventually, the idea of constructing a formulaic romantic plot, along with the work he does on the small apartment building he owns, gets Wilson thinking about another formula: The mixture of cement, water and small rocks that makes up concrete.
Wilson figures, and tries to sell “the suits” on the idea, that because concrete is the second-most used material in the world — only water is used more — it should be easy to make a movie about concrete that will be watched and appreciated by millions. So Wilson, with a small budget, heads to Italy, where much of the ancient buildings were made from concrete.
The trip to Italy raises an important question: Why have Italian concrete buildings remained standing for centuries, while current American concrete tends to fall apart within 40 years or so. He can’t get the Italians to give up their concrete secrets, and his investigation across America takes some odd turns.
For example, Wilson visits an Ohio town that boasts the oldest concrete street in the country, and it only dates back to 1891. This leads him to meet a driving instructor in the town, which gets him interested in the highway safety films the driving school shows, and then the people who come into the school to tell their personal stories of horrific traffic accidents.
One such person, whose husband died in a motorcycle crash, invites Wilson into her home to see a unique souvenir: A patch of her husband’s tattooed leg skin. Wilson then meets the mortician whose business is preserving tattooed skin for their loved ones. The mortician says that his family has been in the funeral business for three generations, and his grandfather oversaw the interment of Ettore Boiardi, the real figure behind the Chef Boyardee brand.
The entire movie works like this, dropping bits of information and observation about concrete, but also taking viewers on side quests that are just as interesting. In the end, these detours relate back to Wilson’s bigger subject: The way humans accept second-rate creations, whether it’s bargain concrete or formulaic Hallmark movies, because it’s more comfortable than holding out for something great that’s more difficult to attain.
This becomes true of “The History of Concrete” itself. Wilson has made a truly thoughtful documentary, but it challenges the viewer to follow a circuitous path to knowledge and insight. It’s not an easy watch, but ultimately a rewarding one.
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‘The History of Concrete’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, September 25, in area theaters. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language and thematic elements. Running time: 101 minutes.