Summary
A heartfelt tribute to America’s pastime and communal experiences sure takes its sweet time — and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Reflecting on the peaks and troughs of the 2004 Boston Red Sox season, noted fan Stephen King once recorded that it was a good day. “And there was baseball. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.” It could also be a terrific summary for Carson Lund’s feature debut EEPHUS, a love letter to recreational pursuits played purely for the enjoyment of it.
Yet it’s that possibly unfamiliar word in the title that serves as the film’s real metaphor. In baseball, an eephus is a type of unusually slow pitch designed to confuse the batter and catch them off-guard. Lund’s incredibly laidback film is in the vein of some of Richard Linklater’s work and takes a few notes out of the world of slow cinema. It is a delivery system that seems perfect for baseball.
Lund’s narrative follows adult league baseball teams Adler’s Paint and Riverdogs, who have played at the New England Soldier’s Field for years. Now the park is about to be paved over for a new school, and the friendly rivals arrive for one last game. There’s no big stakes at play, the fate of their beloved ground is sealed. So, this middle-aged (and beyond) group of players kvetch and groan their way through nine innings simply because it is what they set out to do.
There are no major revelations or twists and turns. We get nods to these people having histories and lives outside of the game. Families wander on and off the field. In-jokes and friendly taunts aren’t explained. We know that scorekeeper Franny (in a wonderfully interior performance by Cliff Blake) has clearly been doing this for years. The disgruntled Ed (Keith William Richards) and Graham (Stephen Radochia) refuse to let the game go, but beyond it being the last time out we don’t know what power keeps them there.
The pacing mimics the feeling of watching a game in full, with Lund placing his cinema audience in the bleachers and bullpen in equal measure. The enigmatic Branch Mooreland (Frederick Wiseman) simply watches, as the real-life documentarian is famous for doing. (There is some wonderful self-awareness in watching a filmmaker known for four-hour joints leave because the game has gone on too long).
Joining the audience in watching this leisurely but joyful non-drama unfold are a couple of local slackers who ponder “Why do they care so much?” It’s the central question of the picture, and maybe more broadly. “It’s all combat,” muses one player. “Life. This game.”
As an unabashed fan who has adopted the Chicago Cubs via my partner and her family, there’s a certain amount of masochism to loving the game. We are, to paraphrase Eddie Vedder, foul-weather not fair-weather fans. EEPHUS perfectly encapsulates this feeling and more. The sun may have set on the fictional Soldier’s Field, yet the game of baseball remains.
2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Carson Lund | WRITERS: Carson Lund, Michael Basta, Nate Fisher | CAST: Keith William Richards, Bill Lee, Wayne Diamond, Cliff Blake, Joe Castiglione, Theodore Bouloukos, Keith Poulson, Stephen Radochia, David Pridemore, Ray Hryb | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2024, Film Constellation | RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 5-16 June 2024 (SFF 2024)
