The History of Concrete

⭐ 9/10

This is basically a feature-length How To with John Wilson episode, and I couldn't have been happier about it. Its structured the exact same way as every episode, where he documents obscure things he sees in New York, and follows every aimless interaction as far as it will go (often incredibly far). Most of this is focused on concrete, how and where its used around New York, where it fails, with a ton of detours along the way.

Thematically its right in line with the show. Everything feels like it boils down to impermanence, how we build these structures out of this boring material and patch it eternally even though its bad for the environment and doesn't look all that nice. He goes to concrete conventions, speaks with a couple contractors, looks at concrete in Rome, visits a brick-layer competition that is the epitome of Americana, works with a guy that blasts gum off sidewalks, and that's barely scratching the surface! In How To the weirdness and mundanity of modern life is so clear, and it feels like he is trying to uncover purpose, basically the meaning of life, and this is no different.

There are a couple fixations here, the main one being this guy he randomly meets at a liquor store. He befriends him, films his band playing, is there when the guy informs him that his fiance just died! He's a strange dude living a strange life, and I would say I even felt like he was lying about the fiance. John never asks that, but its interesting how unflinching his camera is, letting all his subjects vent and be open without judgement.

There is a particularly beautiful cross-cutting montage in here of spiritualists doing this beautiful sand ritual that takes forever and then destroying it, meanwhile the NYC mayor is announcing a ton of new developments. He has shown us the pessimistic view of the former transportation minister, a singer who can barely breath because of the nearby dust from a concrete reclamation plant, and even the flooding due to the concrete around trees outside his apartment. Seeing the contrast of these two ceremonies, one beautiful and contemplative, the other sterile and performative, is pretty stark, my lasting memory of this movie.

There is also a strange scene where he ends up at a gala in honour of Kim Kardashion, where she is flanked by Dwayne Wade and Jacob Elordi while some other celeb says money and sex are the two most boring things in the world? I have no idea how he ends up in these places, but even just seeing this mundane opulence feels compatible when he cuts to a convention where they are discussing how to get concrete to the moon. People are weird at all levels. This gala also has an insane camera pan revealing another attendant I won't spoil but it was fodder for the John Wilson fans in the theatre, basically got a round of applause.

I could go on and on, there are dozens of tangents that I could write paragraphs on that all tie in neatly to these themes. He spends some time at a Hallmark movie production studio, and I have never seen a sadder place. He hires a contractor to film the worlds first 3D printed concrete Starbucks, attempting to recreate his style but making the most depressing drone cam AI looking trash I've ever seen. He documents a race where a couple people circle a single block in New York all day for months in some sort of spiritual ceremony as a small crowd of old woman sing hymns to encourage them. There is so much of Nathan Fielder in this, as he injects himself into societies you couldn't even imagine exists and just lets the camera role. I think this is masterpiece filmmaking, more than a documentary but a true timestamp on humanity, something that is emblematic of this exact moment in history.

Okay one last thing. He speaks to this contractor who tells him about how new concrete isn't as good as old. But every time he says cement he pronounces it "see-ment", and it sounds like semen. Every time he says it I died laughing, you are just waiting for it. And then his apprentice starts speaking and you are like, oh boy how's he going to say it! And when he finally does the theatre exploded, just a hilarious moment out of something so small and silly. I laughed harder at this than I can remember laughing at anything in a theatre.

If you haven't see How To, I cannot recommend it enough. Give John Wilson some of your time and he will not disappoint.