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IrelandPaint Drying gives Joey Engelman a surprisingly eventful week
His short-form essay follows Charlie Shackleton's certification protest from a blank wall to an unlikely Letterboxd afterlife.
Joey Engelman
Story of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
Movies You're Never Meant To Finish - Part 1
White paint on a wall isn't much of a plot, but the paperwork makes a story. In "Movies You're Never Meant To Finish - Part 1," Joey Engelman explains how Charlie Shackleton turned film-classification fees into a very long assignment for the British Board of Film Classification.
The filmmaker crowdfunded the cost of submitting an uninterrupted shot of drying paint, with donations determining how much footage the examiners would have to watch. The result ran for more than ten hours. Two examiners watched it across two days and awarded it a U certificate. Engelman's commentary, illustrated with archival clips, gives the premise a succinct description: "No plot, no dialogue, no music, no mercy."
That Short is approaching a million views, making it the most watched of the channel's seven uploads this week. It also has the strongest daily momentum, followed by Part 4 of the same series. An older installment of "Movies That Broke Insane World Records" remains in the mix, too. The longer "Movies You're Never Meant to Finish" gathers Paint Drying alongside The Clock, Cinématon and other experiments in durational cinema.
Daily channel views are running at nearly three times their usual level, while subscribers increased by about 3,000 over the week. Among similarly sized movie and TV channels, EastKage had a particularly busy week; Hartwell the Watcher was quieter than usual.
Viewers of the Paint Drying essay are debating certification costs and imagining the examiner who took the job because they loved movies. Engelman supplies another use for the film entirely: its Letterboxd page has become his rolling annual sneeze counter.
Published on Trari
Where next?
What viewers say
Imagine you get a job at the film board because you love films and your first assignment is this.
@fredwardv6988See it on YouTube310GB for a static image? Bro really wanted 8K120fps.
@Diriector_DocSee it on YouTubeBro sneaked in a sarcasm in the most stealthy way possible (That extra camera killed me)
@puzzleticky8427See it on YouTube
2 more comments
he should have put in a jumpscare clip
@jukeboxjacobiusSee it on YouTubeThe fourth wall break was a little freaky 😅
💜💜💜@LCC_Author34See it on YouTube
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The videos drawing views on Joey Engelman right now
Movies You're Never Meant To Finish - Part 2351,526 views · 2026-11-08
Movies You're Never Meant To Finish - Part 4327,566 views · 2026-11-10
Movies You're Never Meant to Finish76,451 views · 2026-11-06
Movies That Broke Insane World Records - Part 1973,748 views · 2026-11-05
Movies You're Never Meant To Finish - Part 370,877 views · 2026-11-09
Movies That Broke Insane World Records - Part 17704,925 views
- Channel
- Joey Engelman
- Subscribers
- 208,000 ▲ 3,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 2,308,095
- Videos published this week
- 7
- Video published
- November 7, 2026
- Video views so far
- 968,150
- Views on its first day
- 41,903
The numbers
Here is how Joey Engelman's week looks across views, subscribers and uploads.
💡 Test your knowledge
What does Joey Engelman track in his Letterboxd entry for Paint Drying?
Engelman reveals that he uses the film's Letterboxd entry as a rolling record of his sneezes that year.