Tick Tick (Tick) Boom! satirizes a typical action film cliché: that of the less-than-accurate countdown timer. That may not seem like the hardest task since it’s a cliché that action films lean into, but this supercut is very skilfully executed with attention for many small details. I sincerely hope film student Willem Bleijenberg didn’t keep a timer of the work he put into this. And if he did, I hope that timer was as inaccurate as the ones in these films.

This video essay is also a great example of how humor can be used as a critical tool. The tongue-in-cheek approach (“Let’s fix that”) and the ironic sound effects (the cuckoo clock is an inspired addition) playfully poke fun at these action films and the way they shamelessly stretch time.

Bleijenberg searched for the most suitable form (and platform) to make his case and came to the conclusion that the features of YouTube Shorts were best suited to the point he wanted to make. The version above is a compilation of all the Shorts he published on his YouTube account. As a consequence of that choice for YouTube Shorts, he worked in a vertical aspect ratio. That must have posed compositional challenges, but at no point does his edit make you feel you are missing anything.