The Big Picture

Eephus
celebrates third spaces through a ragtag baseball team’s final game.
The film’s cinematography, diverse characters, and immersive worldbuilding stand out.
The experience is never light on jokes, even as many of them happen in the background of the film.

Third spaces, or places to meet outside of the home or workplaces (bars, churches, etc.) are under fire. The pandemic has had a hand in their demise, forcing us to find new ways to connect online with one another. The Internet has been waging a long war against them, slowly eroding culture built in person in favor of a monoculture shaped online by the few sites everyone visits. Eephus is an affectionate celebration of third spaces, tracking a ragtag group of men who gather for the last recreational baseball game on Soldier’s Field in Douglas, Massachusetts, which is scheduled for demolition the next day.

With nine players to each team, a few substitutes, and plenty of peripheral people, Eephus is absolutely loaded with characters. It could be a daunting proposition for first-time feature director Carson Lund to take on, but Lund has served as cinematographer on a few features from Tyler Taormina: Ham on Rye and Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, both whose low-budget status didn’t stop them from filling them with super-sized ensemble casts.

Eephus (2024) Release Date May 19, 2024 Director Carson Lund Cast Frederick Wiseman , Keith William Richards , Wayne Diamond , Gregory Falatek , Conner Marx Runtime 98 Minutes Main Genre Drama Writers Michael Basta , Nate Fisher , Carson Lund Studio(s) Omnes Films , Magmys , Nord-Ouest Films Expand

In the vein of Robert Altman or Richard Linklater, Eephus is banter-filled with no true lead character. Many of Eephus’ funniest lines are delivered off-screen, by a character commenting to another on what we’re seeing on screen or maybe something totally unrelated. The film rewards repeat viewing in that you’re likely to catch jokes you missed the first time around, and viewers are sure to gravitate toward different favorite ballplayers on a screening-to-screening basis.

‘Eephus’ Has an Expansive Cast of Players
Image via Cannes

Two Uncut Gems stars pop up: Keith William Richards is the ace pitcher for Adler’s Paint, and Wayne Diamond (the big-haired helicopter pilot in Uncut Gems) cameos in a zany sequence in which he shows up in a convertible to collect Richards’ Ed, who is late to his niece’s christening. A few New York City indie film fixtures in Keith Poulson (The Sweet East, Between the Temples) and Theodore Bouloukos (Jobe’z World) appear as well. With such a large cast it’s impressive no one occupies empty archetypes. They all fulfill a role and that might be archetypal to a certain degree but their characterizations all go beyond that. They interact with one another in ways that indicate deep histories both on and off the field. It’s another impressive feat from a first-time feature director and the relatively young filmmaking team that Lund and Taormina belong to in Omnes Films.

The inspiration behind the film comes from Lund’s personal experience playing in a recreational baseball league in Los Angeles. He and his co-writers Mike Basta and Nate Fisher structured Eephus around a real game they fully mapped out first. That way each player would be accounted for at all times. There are no continuity errors where a player runs to third base in one shot and then is conspicuously absent in the follow-up shot. It’s a small detail, likely to be missed by most viewers, but does help build the world around these players in a legitimate, immersive manner.

Eephus takes place over the course of an entire baseball game, from the morning when the players all show up one by one, to deep into the evening when they probably should call it and go home. But they refuse because something inside them needs to finish this final game, even if it’s now pitch black and they must park their cars along the foul lines for the headlights to light up the field. Despite his background as a DP, Lund doesn’t lens his debut himself, probably a wise decision considering the magnitude of his other duties: co-writing, directing, producing, and editing. But Eephus is very cinematography-forward, with distinct lighting chosen for each time of day: morning, high noon, afternoon, dusk, and night. Rarely does a small-budgeted American independent feature look this good.

Eephus’ runtime is integral to the experience. An audience member needs to begin to feel the length of this game, just as the players do. That’s not to say this is slow cinema or overly challenging to sit through. But there is a moment when the sun begins to set and you realize: “Oh yeah, baseball games are quite long.”

What Does the Title ‘Eephus’ Even Mean?
Casual baseball lovers might still be confused about that title. An eephus is an unnaturally slow pitch, one that confuses a batter primed to hit balls within a certain, much higher speed range. It leads to them often swinging too early or late, missing the ball badly, embarrassing themselves in the process. Co-writer Nate Fisher, who plays a backup pitcher with an eephus pitch specialty, explains the philosophy behind the pitch to the other alternate, as an abstracted cutaway shows the slow pitch travel through the air. It’s a visual detour that shows the filmmaker unafraid to take formal chances.

Smartphones are absent in Eephus, but that doesn’t mean it is explicitly a period piece. This is a trademark of Omnes Films projects: they would rather keep their timelines vague. There are other consciously analog touches: the score is kept by hand using a lead pencil, an old radio plays local news updates with voiceover by legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman, car radios are adjusted with old-school dial knobs, and a food truck relays its menu on repeat via a loudspeaker. Baseball is an old-school sport and keeping the ephemera around it old-school as well just feels right.

Will I Enjoy ‘Eephus’ Even if I Don’t Like Baseball?
Image via Cannes

A question sure to come up for Eephus is accessibility. Can you enjoy this movie if you don’t follow baseball? Yes, absolutely, and while baseball jargon is present throughout the film, it’s not integral to understanding what’s at stake emotionally for the characters with this field closing and their longstanding league ending forever. In a statement, Lund called recreational baseball “pure excess” and there is inherent value in activities with no tangible market benefit. Eephus stands in accordance with Oscar Wilde’s assertion: “The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.”

Purposefully avoiding the saccharine vibes that accompany final goodbyes, Eephus could be accused of withholding too much, perhaps afraid of being accused of welling up: “I told you I have allergies this time of year!” But Lund and his co-writers trust the connections made with the characters over 98 minutes will suffice to leave audiences feeling more deeply about what these men are losing, and how that is a symbol for what we all lose when we don’t value public meeting places of any shape. It’s a wise bet that pays off and keeps the film from feeling nostalgic in a fleeting, empty way. Eephus delivers an experience that lingers, successfully capturing a deeper melancholy that can’t be shaken.

REVIEW Eephus (2024) Eephus is a celebration of third spaces with excellent cinematography, a great cast of characters, and immersive wdrldbuildling.ProsIt is a film that rewards multiple viewings with jokes and characters in the background proving to be the funniest bits.Though very much about baseball, it’s an experience that will also be accessible to anyone who has ever had a third space.The experience is one that lingers, capturing a deeper melancholy that can’t be shaken.

Eephus had its World Premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It is playing this week at the Sydney Film Festival.