"For those in the know, the release of the Sundance film festival lineup last December contained one perfect, tantalizing log line, for a documentary plainly called The History of Concrete: After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete. Wilson, a film-maker from the Nathan Fielder school of meandering, bone-dry observational comedy, is a master of the modern documentary-essay-memoir, with an uncanny eye for the idiosyncratic,"
"His HBO series, which got his face on to a Times Square billboard and his team to the Emmys, is over. He has reached an alien, distinctly 2020s mid-level of success: his face is on black-market weed products (high, New York!), he's getting offers to collab with Arby's, he's the answer to a $1,000 question on Jeopardy! that no one gets. Most flatteringly, someone on TikTok is using an AI-generated version of his voice to sell gutters."
After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, John Wilson tries to apply the same formula to a documentary about concrete. Wilson built a distinctive voice with How To With John Wilson, turning spoofs of practical guides into meditations on loudness, loneliness and the ridiculousness of urban life. The History of Concrete operates like an extended episode of that series, adding diversions and the surrealities of newfound mid-level celebrity. That celebrity includes Times Square visibility, Emmy recognition, branded merchandise, corporate offers, a Jeopardy! clue, and AI-driven uses of his voice online.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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