John Wilson's Concrete Debut: Moving and Hilarious — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- John Wilson's debut feature film "The History of Concrete" is a 100-minute essay film using the titular material as a throughline connecting DMX, Hallmark movies, a Sri Chinmoy ultramarathon, a 3,100-mile footrace honoring a dead Brooklyn cult leader, and a Jersey Shore rock-and-roller named Jack Macco
- Magnolia releases the film theatrically starting Friday, September 18, following its premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival
- The film grapples with Wilson ending HBO's "How to With John Wilson" and processes grief through his signature collage of first-person video snippets and unpredictable associations
- Concrete itself is the film's central metaphor: it forms the backbone of modern infrastructure but only lasts about 40 years before crumbling, embodying the divide between false permanence and ephemerality
- Wilson visits a tattoo artist who preserves the inked flesh of the dead so the living can frame it on their walls, alongside a Sri Chinmoy ultramarathon and Tibetan sand mandalas — detours into death and impermanence
- The reviewer notes Wilson's circular structure — going from A to B to Q to ancient hieroglyphics before looping home — risks repetition, but argues the formula itself imposes comfort on chaos and rewards sticking to it
Why it matters: Wilson, who built a cult following with HBO's "How to With John Wilson," stakes his post-TV identity on a feature-length essay film that bets audiences want more of his meandering, associative style. For his fans, the September 18 theatrical run is a chance to see whether his signature collage deepens or merely dilutes what worked in half-hour episodes.
Ask SkimNews
