A One Mann’s Movies review of “The History of Concrete”. (From the 2026 London Film Festival). (2026, 3.5*, ’12’).
A film that’s difficult to categorise. It’s certainly a comedy; it has features of a documentary about a particular theme (if you squint really hard at times); it is an experience.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
The LFF write-up says “After finding himself with too much time on his hands, documentarian Wilson attends a workshop on how to make Hallmark romcoms. It inspires him to apply the formula to a film investigating the story of concrete!” (This is actually a misleading… although its true he attends a Hallmark video making seminar, the film does not really even try to ‘be a Hallmark film’. It is a freewheeling ‘documentary’ that comically pieces together of dozens of clips about fairly random subjects!)
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This film has not yet received a classification by the BBFC, but I would expect it to be a ’12A’ as there was occasional bad language but nothing too extreme.)
Talent:
Starring: John Wilson.
Directed by: John Wilson.
Running Time: 1h 41m.
Review:
Positives:
- The film has a quirky narration from Wilson that is immediately appealing and put a big smile on my face. Wilson has no problem with taking the piss out of the over-enthusiasm of Americans and that appealed to me greatly. He has an eye for interesting details and pithily adapts his narration to meet the image on screen. It’s very droll. I was reminded of Philomena Cunk from her BBC show.
- The reason this film is difficult to write a plot for is that it has no idea what it is really about. The central idea is Wilson (who apparently had a popular show on HBO comedy show called “How To”, which I know nothing about) wants to make a new film to fill his bored existence, picks the title – “The History of Concrete” – and he is trying to persuade investors (via Zoom calls) that this is a money-spinner for them in terms of box office returns. (You can imagine the response!). In the meantime, he has scrounged from family and friends to start filming “stuff” with a vaguely concrete-y theme towards the movie.
- While we do cover some topics closely associated with concrete – including the scary degradation of the stuff, gum removal from it (by ‘Gumbusters’ and their Gumbusters wine, LOL!), the ‘World of Concrete” expo, 3D concrete printing and LA’s “porno use of concrete” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – Wilson is like some Jack Russell terrier, filming people about concrete but then seeing a completely different rabbit hole and diving down it! Random topics include short streets, Ohio’s high-spots, tattoo preservation and upcoming rock artists. It is like some unconscious stream of thought, put into film form. Some of it feels like “oh, I have this bit of footage on my iPhone… let’s lob it in”: case in point, a completely random dinner party with Kim Kardashian!
Negatives:
- Comedy like this has a limited shelf-life before it starts getting tiresome and I’m afraid even at 101 minutes this reached its limit for me. I could have done with this being 90, or even 85, minutes long.
- The film has a tonal inconsistency that is a bit disturbing. At one point you are laughing, and then suddenly someone is facing a significant bereavement: not about concrete… not funny… why is it there at all?
- I think the ‘Hallmark’ angle is very misleading, as mentioned above.
Summary Thoughts:
I’ve um’d and ah’d about whether this should be 3* or 3.5*s and ended up going for the slightly higher rating, since if this popped up on the tele in the future, I would probably want to watch it again. But it has some significant flaws (just like the concrete in Brooklyn’s flyovers) and that’s a shame. I *would* actually like to see a film about the history of concrete done as a Hallmark rom-com!
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O05arcJjOd0.
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