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Big Directors Small Films: Jason Reitman’s Gulp

Posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta

In this week’s edition of Big Directors Small Films we take a look at Jason Reitman’s 2001 short film Gulp.

Reitman made a huge splash with last year’s Oscar-nominated dramedy Juno, and made his feature filmmaking debut with a big screen adaptation of Thank You For Smoking a few years earlier. Son of director Ivan Reitman, Jason got his start with a series of six short films which won acclaim at various film festivals around the world.

Gulp tells the story of one man’s quest to save his fish. The film stars Jason Carpenter, Mary Jo Smith, Jeff Witzke and Heather Brown. If you look closely, you might even catch Jason’s short cameo as one of the animal clinic pet owners. The film was one of three comedic short films to be co-produced by Atom Films and funded by Ford Motor Company (the, art the time, new Ford Focus is featured prominently on screen).

Gulp was shown at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, Los Angeles Film festival, US Comedy Arts Festival, Aspen Shorts Fest, Santa Barbara Film Festival, Palm Springs Festival of Shorts, USA Film Festival, Seattle Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Cleveland Film Festival, Taos Talking Pictures, Atlanta Film and Video Festival, Nantucket Film Festival, Rehoboth Beach Film Festival, Kansas City Film Festival, Marcos Island Film Festival and a few dozen more festivals worldwide.

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  • helicopters
    surprising, i wasn't expecting anything nearly so fast-paced or visually interesting, since juno and thank you for smoking were so relatively pared-down...
  • Shad
    Awesome, great use of music as well. Helicopters makes a good point, and after seeing that I'd really like to see Reitman take on something more fast paced.
  • While "Gulp" is no doubt a fine short in itself, I can't watch it without without recalling it as being sponsored by Ford for its Focus model on either iFilm or AtomFilms years back. I highly recommend seeking out Reitman's previous (and non-shilling) short "In God We Trust", which has a far more satisfying story.
  • That was... dull.

    He really stepped up his game, didn't he?
  • Diego Candel Contardo
    How tragic, I think goldfishes can't live in salty water :(

    I liked the short though.
  • Marge
    Dude In God We Trust is his better short. Like waaaaaayyy better. It has a lot of his regulars in it like Jeff Witzke and Richard Speight Jr.
  • orange cinema
    i've never thought jason used his dad's name to get into the industry...until now. that was really really bad. then again, some of his other shorts are alot better. wow, that was bad.
  • christian slater
    awful.
  • jack west
    There used to be a better version online of both Gulp and In God We Trust with better music and sfx. I wish those versions were online.
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