Directed By Carson Lund
Starring – Frederick Wiseman, Bill Lee, Keith William Richards
The Plot – As an imminent construction project looms over their beloved small-town baseball field, a pair of New England rec-league teams face off for the last time. Tensions flare up and ceremonial laughs are shared as an era of camaraderie and escapism fades into an uncertain future
Rated R for adult language
EEPHUS | Official Trailer | In Select Theaters March 7
POSITIVES
An “Eephus” is defined as a slow pitch that travels in a high arc towards the plate, and while the term conjures a difficulty among its peers to effectively pull off, Carson Lund succeeds remarkably in the same approach towards his feature length directorial debut, eliciting a digestibly fun baseball and friendship flick, yet one that ultimately packs with a profound punch about the games that we’re eventually forced to bid farewell to. Because of such, this is a film that undoubtedly sneaks up on its audience, not only for the bittersweet goodbye that will inevitably conclude this single day’s festivities, but also the reflection towards reality of where that leaves these characters once it’s gone. The script is anything but a wet blanket, leaning heavily into off-beat observations within its many colorfully character dynamics that the film’s focus drifts casually throughout, but Lund takes the importance of his characters’ ambitions quite seriously, and because of such, this nothing game between two aging teams carries with it the stakes and urgency of its inevitable impact that I haven’t received in quite sometime with a sports movie, with some boldly brave directions to his presentation that will surely divide his audience in half. The first of those is aforementioned, in which the editing bounces between many dynamics in, around and even outside of the game, helping to enrich us with a greater knowledge of its characters, while simultaneously conveying the unimportance of losing himself to the events of the game. This is not to say that Lund doesn’t structure some kind of narrative to the sequencing of the storytelling, particularly as the game reaches the later innings, just that the game feels like background noise for the conflicts within this small town that permeate so apparently around this ballfield, with only occasional glimpses into gameplay that elicit some hilarious examples of over-the-hill athletes struggling to hang on to their youths. Speaking of hilariousness, the film’s humor subtly eases its way into the spontaneous deliveries of its characters, without feeling like too much of the telegraphed variety that make up the heavy-handed effort of most contemporary comedies. Instead, Lund utilizes vital silence in the moments after the lines are delivered, and it gives the audience time to not only allow the intended punchlines to catch up to their interpretation, but also effortlessly articulates why these bands of misfits work so perfectly around one another, giving me a firm appreciation for Lund’s fly-on-the-wall brand of storytelling that gave me plenty of time with each of them. As for the ensemble, only “Uncut Gems” Keith William Richards was recognizable among them, and this unfamiliarity with these actors afforded me the freedom to view them as characters, instead of big names atop a billboard. The script does imbed some semblance of substantial importance to certain characters, but essentially everybody involved here gets ample time to shine in front of the camera, without the need to spend vital time within the film’s 93-minute run time towards developing each of them individually, and if you’ve ever spent anytime around baseball players, you should know that the conversations will be every bit as crudely juvenile as they will be boldly confrontational, cluing us in seamlessly to the adolescence that still lingers within this baseball diamond that drives them to be there every weekend. On top of this, while “Eephus” is inescapably a barebones budgeted independent flick, the dependency of natural lighting to its presentation maintained authenticity in the passage of time within the game, conveying insight into the withering endurance and cranky attitudes of the players, as they’re basically playing through a game that in some of their eyes could literally go on forever. As the film moves towards its unfortunately inferior second half, we start to experience increasing darkness adding obscuring incoherence towards the details of the game, and while some productions would enact enhancements at the cost of legitimacy, Lund and cinematographer Greg Tango instead opt to play it out with their surrounding players, and the results breed an attainable essence of believability that serve as a visual ticking clock to the inescapability that so many of its fighters are continuously evading, granting us a subtly immersive appeal towards the development of the game, which eventually grow to be the players single greatest conflict.
NEGATIVES
The dark also unfortunately leads to an unforeseen dip in quality for the film, as everything from the consistently effective humor to the excitement of the characters wither away during the film’s final forty minutes, sending “Eephus” out on a whimper of longing and regret, instead of a bang involving pride and celebration. Repetition to such a single stage setting and game objective is certainly one of the biggest causes for this corruption, sending the movie’s pacing into a tale-spin that makes us feel like we’ve experienced every pitch of this all-day game, but for my money the bigger issue pertains to so many of these pocketed dynamics and internal conflicts within the characters feeling so consequentially unresolved, and while Lund was possibly inscribing nobility and believability within his many immature characters incapable of coming to terms with their own mortalities, I wish the script instead opted for an ending that deserved every ounce of those post-game fireworks, instead of them feeling like an obligation for these players to spend even more time on the field, leaving the closing moments of the movie falling so flat emotionally to a final game that at least initially feels like the end of the world to these characters. Beyond this, the movie’s aforementioned run time also feels a bit stretched and sacrificial to audience investment, particularly in the little of direction and development that the script carried with it throughout the proceedings. While most people would be pleased with a 93-minute engagement, the single stage setting ultimately comes back to be its biggest detractor to the integrity of the experience, as the entirety of the film’s scenes taking place on this field make it feel like a taxingly long day at the ballpark, where too much time around these characters and their unapologetic personalities lead to even the hardest of hardcore baseball fans asking for the kind of in-game finality that had us wanting more. Despite the film actually utilizing a winner in this iron man game, it comes as a result of tedium and ocular incoherence from some of its players that showcases them quitting, even when everything previous to this conveyed their love and admiration for the sport, and while it’s certainly understandable playing for what feels like an 8-hour game, it makes me wish even more than Lund opted for a heartfelt ending that a movie of this quality deserved, especially for how he’s able to elicit so much with a budget so minimal.
OVERALL
“Eephus” isn’t quite the bases-clearing grand slam that was expected by such a promising first half from the debut of promising filmmaker Carson Lund, but it is the kind of ground rule double that sees its colorfully quirky characters and mortality narrative reaching home with a sports movie that feels so refreshingly unlike anything else in the subgenre. While the film’s later innings drag on longer than necessary, with an ending leaving more to be desired in promised fireworks, the charismatic chemistry of this wild bunch of colorfully crude characters is more than enough to keep it from striking out, giving Lund his first cinematic victory that comes up in the clutch, where it matters most.
My Grade: 7.4 or B-