'The History Of Concrete' A Review

The History Of Concrete is a documentary, basically an extended episode of John Wilson's HBO show How To with John Wilson. Through B-roll, narration, and random interviews the movie quickly diverges from the subject of it's title and explores random tangents. More stream-of-consciousness than themeatic.

Fans of Wilson's show will certainly be pleased with this but beyond that the appeal is doubtful. There's no focus, it's not actually about concrete, Wilson as a personality has the kind of Brooklyn hipster irony and apathy that has limited appeal(whether this be more comedy than documentary or vice versa). He even injects his difficulty making the film into the film in, what comes across as, a kind of petulant entitlement. Beyond a certain subset of older Gen Z, younger Gen Y, and New Yorkers this has little to nothing to offer.

Sprawling subject matter and uneven cringe comedic beats makes the movie basically an overlong, poorly paced version of Wilson's show.

A doc that purports to be about something but ultimately has nothing to say, a vague curiosity.

Currently in theaters.

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