"The instructional promise of each episode was a bit, a starting point for discursive, funny, intermittently personal mini-essays that always started in Wilson's beloved New York, but could and did make their way anywhere. Wilson, an unassuming 30-something Ridgewood resident who narrates his work in halting voice-over and never seems to be without a camera in his hand, would kick off an episode called "How"
"It's part of the text for what's in some ways just a supersize installment of the series and in others an experiment in what happens when the approach that Wilson first developed in short-form videos is allowed to play out over 100 minutes. The result is scruffily endearing, though it teeters on the verge of collapse at times, as the pretense that what's unfolding onscreen is all a serendipitous journey gets stretched to the breaking point."
How to With John Wilson used mundane instructional premises as launchpads for discursive, funny, intermittently personal mini-essays rooted in New York but capable of wandering far afield. Wilson narrates in halting voice-over and films as an unassuming Ridgewood resident, turning small episodes into explorations of documentary ethics and belonging. The History of Concrete enlarges that approach into a feature-length project and functions both as a supersized episode and an experiment in extended form. The 100-minute film is scruffily endearing while occasionally teetering as the guise of serendipity stretches toward a breaking point. Wilson combines an affected fumbling persona with careful, involved storytelling.
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