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Sunday, January 2, 2022

Thoughts on Clifford

I watched Clifford in October 2021 on Hulu, the 90s movie where a middle-aged Martin Short plays a ten-year-old boy who causes a lot of life wrecking damage for his uncle Charles Grodin, who I felt could have a case of justifiable homicide since Clifford came off like he was guided by the Devil, especially when he frames his uncle for a false bomb plot and nearly ruins his relationships at work and with his fiancée’s family. However, I like the movie a lot more than when I first saw it at 11 and thought it was weird and off-putting. Now I found it really darkly funny, especially Short’s demented expressions to the audience and Grodin’s classic “losing my mind” rants and seething one-liners. I cracked up laughing at Grodin’s deadpan delivery on the doctored voicemail Clifford edits: “Hi, this is Martin Daniels, I'm not home right now but I got a bomb under city hall. Talk to you later.” I played that back a few times.

I could also see how, despite Short being a small man, that the movie did tricks to make him look even shorter around the others, like the other actors were standing on boxes or platforms to look like the “adults,” or Clifford wears a boy’s school uniform to look more childish. I’m also comparing this to seeing present-day Short in Only Murders in the Building, and how he’s not that much shorter than the other cast members to any significant degree.
I had heard that this movie was made earlier than its release, it was filmed around 1990-1991, but Orion Pictures was having issues and eventually declared bankruptcy and shut down, and the movie came out in 1994, with the bookended parts with old Clifford and a young Ben Savage filmed in 1993.
I can see why this bombed, it’s way too dark and weird, and kid me was also confused by it when I watched it as a rental that one of my parents picked. But I also think it works well as both having come out post-Home Alone and Problem Child as a more bizarre version of it, as well as a more stranger comedy that is more accepted in alternative comedies on streaming and Adult Swim.

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