Remember me
Is it possible to make an entire movie about concrete? Why, yes, apparently it is. That's the big idea behind this wacky, weird, fun documentary film called The History of Concrete that just premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. This is the latest doc creation from filmmaker / comedian / creator John Wilson, best known for his acclaimed HBO series "How to with John Wilson" which ran for three seasons until 2023. After making that, he wasn't sure what to do next, so he ended up tumbling right into the world of concrete. For those who aren't familiar with John Wilson and his shtick, he's a very "pick up an old handheld camera, film whatever is in front of him all the time, walk around & meet people, and put together a film later from all the footage with his narration over it" kind of guy. He's endearing and funny and wacky enough for this to be entertaining – most of the time. Because he was trying to figure out what to do during the final years of the pandemic, nothing intrigued him more (I guess?) than concrete – the hard stuff underneath our feet. He also lives in New York City which is a concrete city so it was easy for him to go out and film everywhere.
Wilson's The History of Concrete documentary is mostly inspired by Ross McElwee's classic Sherman's March film, which premiered back in 1985 and changed doc filmmaking forever. However, he also follows in the footsteps of Morgan Spurlock's doc The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (now officially known as POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold) which also premiered at Sundance in 2011. Spurlock's film and Wilson's film are pretty much the same – they both go meta by putting themselves into the film and turn the act of creating, financing, and selling the doc into the story within the film itself. Wilson's film even has pitches and Zoom meetings with his agent included as footage in the film. All of them seem a bit unsure of this concept and don't really seem to understand why he's making a film about concrete. Even by the end of the film, I don't really understand why either, however I can still appreciate the experience of watching it anyway. It's funny, it's irreverent, it's insightful, but only to a point. The first half is much better than the second half and it really loses steam by the end. Mainly because Wilson ends up drifting away from concrete and starts following some of the peculiar people he met along the way that he thinks are worth following...
The film ends up being less about concrete, more about New York City, and the foundation of what makes that city so special – all the people. Wilson bumbles his way around exploring anything related to concrete & sidewalks & pavement: visiting concrete conventions, meeting a guy who removes gum from sidewalks, following a 52-day walking marathon in NYC, discovering the oldest paved street in America, telling stories about sidewalks in NYC (they once turned a hole into a fish pond), trying to repair his own concrete at his building, etc. But what he ultimately discovers is that the people down on the street in NYC (and not up in the penthouses) are the real core of the city, the real people that bind it all together and keep it stable. But this means you'll meet some wacky characters, including the musician he ends up following for most of the second half of the film (which came about because a financing deal could only happen if he was able get any notable band to appear in the film). Nonetheless, it reminded me of the good ol' days of watching all the self-aware Morgan Spurlock docs at Sundance long ago. Fun times... And I'm really glad I could watch this doc with an audience, everyone laughing together, even if it didn't make me care much more about concrete.
Alex's Sundance 2026 Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter - @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd - @firstshowing
