{"id":423881,"date":"2026-01-22T23:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423881\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T23:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:41:08","slug":"john-wilsons-the-history-of-concrete-helped-him-get-out-of-a-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423881\/","title":{"rendered":"John Wilson’s ‘The History of Concrete’ Helped Him Get Out of a Slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s tough to describe John Wilson<\/a>\u2019s new documentary, \u201cThe History of Concrete<\/a>,\u201d premiering on opening night at Sundance. On one hand, it\u2019s as promised in the title: An examination of the building block of cities and societies that often goes unnoticed, and how its usage and degradation can stand as a metaphor for human nature. There\u2019s a strong meta-element, as Wilson turns the camera on during the process of finding financing for the project, often unable to close the deal when the topic is, by design, dull. Along the way, his creative tank is fueled while talking with unique people he meets along the way, which recalls his work over three seasons of his HBO series, \u201cHow To With John Wilson.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWilson says that the genesis of \u201cConcrete\u201d came from home repairs, which he also documents in the film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt started fairly innocently when I was trying to figure out how to fix the foundation to my house,\u201d he says. \u201cI try to involve the audience with the very beginning of the creative process in this film, just by showing you where the germ of the idea originates, and then expands outward into this larger portrait of this substance and the people that use it. I really like the subject matter because it seemed extraordinarily hard to make it funny. That\u2019s a challenge that I always like to take on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA challenge Wilson didn\u2019t anticipate was the feedback he received about how his comedic voice, so sharpened and idiosyncratic on \u201cHow To,\u201d might not be seen as fresh when pitching a new feature-length project.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was a lot of conversation when we first started taking this out to pitch it, from my agents or other industry professionals, who were telling me people want the new,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cThey don\u2019t want the exact same thing as the show. I initially resented that, because I felt like this was the best way to do things for me. This was something I had thought about a lot, and I felt it was like the most complete way to express this idea I was exploring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYet Wilson was able to reconfigure how he paced his storytelling in a way that created a fresh canvas. Whereas episodes of \u201cHow To\u201d were restricted to 28 minutes to examine issues such as \u201cHow to Make Small Talk\u201d and \u201cHow To Be Spontaneous\u201d through a roundabout series of interviews and excursions, Wilson changed the tempo for \u201cConcrete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTransitioning from a hard format to this other kind with no real time constraints, you don\u2019t want to punish the audience,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I got really excited, just like trying to think about how to tease out these storylines over a longer period of time. For the show, I would spend maybe a couple of weeks with a main character. With this, I was able to spend a couple of years, witnessing a longer character arc over the course of the production. I think materially it\u2019s very similar to the show, but it also took a lot of effort to let the subject matter speak for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe scale of the project\u2019s raw material ballooned as Wilson shot 140 hours in several countries, unsure about how the final version of his film might unfold. While it\u2019s touched upon in the film, Wilson says that his fulfillment in life and in the project were inextricably tied together.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy self-worth kind of plummeted, and that\u2019s where I was living for most of the beginning of this project,\u201d he says. \u201cI tried to surround myself with people who were much more confident and assured in what they were doing. I feed off that energy in a way, but it\u2019s isolating when you\u2019re making something like this. It was usually just like me and one other person just driving to and from these shoots and, I don\u2019t know \u2026 I\u2019m still unpacking a lot of it, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne kindred spirit who helped Wilson push through and complete his vision was Jack Macco, a gigging musician in Long Island whom Wilson met at a liquor store. With a wild mane of hair and a love of rocking out on local stages, Macco is a true character, but what makes him a focal point of the last stretch of the film are unexpected layers we won\u2019t spoil here. But Wison was energized by Macco\u2019s commitment to art and creativity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou could see him as a mundane example of ambition, which is nice, because he seems genuinely content in a lot of ways,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s something I wasn\u2019t feeling at all when I was making the film. I was trying to absorb some of his enthusiasm and inner peace by spending time with him and getting to understand what motivates him. We see the rooms that he plays in Long Island\u2019s dive bar scene. These places are really valuable. At a point in the film, Jack was the only thing keeping me going. He almost felt like my swimming buddy, and was one of the only bits of continuity I have in my life or with this project right now, creatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis theme of people finding joy and happiness through their art often appears in the film, as Wilson interacts with an enthusiastic short film crew, extreme ultramarathoners and even the head of GumBusters, a New York City specialty cleaning company founded by a man who loves blasting old gum stains out of concrete.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs he\u2019s gearing up for the \u201cConcrete\u201d premiere, Wilson says he\u2019s put down his \u201cbig camera\u201d for a minute, but is always documenting life in his native New York City. While the process of wrapping this film is still fresh, he is excited for future projects.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have a couple of ideas right now that I\u2019m figuring out how to shop around, but I think none of them are as unsexy as concrete,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s also relative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s tough to describe John Wilson\u2019s new documentary, \u201cThe History of Concrete,\u201d premiering on opening night at Sundance.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[44884,88,199636,206,98265,201935],"class_list":["post-423881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-entertainment","tag-john-wilson","tag-movies","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-the-history-of-concrete"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}