“Eephus” (2024) is set on Sunday, October 16 at some point in the Nineties on Soldiers Field, a baseball field in Douglas, Massachusetts, that is on death row to make room for a middle school while the neighboring soccer field remains untouched. Two local baseball teams, Adler’s Paint and the Riverdogs, congregate for one last game, along with Franny (Cliff Blake), the unofficial scorekeeper, Howie (Lou Basta), a local long-time spectator, random people who appear to raze the team, the food truck for Harry’s Pizza, and a handful of the players’ relatives and acquaintances. What will they do after this?
When I watch a movie, I sometimes play the game of who I would be if I was a character in the movie. I would be one of the spectators, Melanie (Isabelle Charlot), not because I would be dating the player, but because if I somehow ended up at a random baseball game and was asked why, I would reply, “I don’t really know a lot about baseball.” So If you have already seen and loved the film and/or love and watch baseball, this review is not for you. This review is for people who only see baseball in increments of seconds if they are channel surfing or can be lured to a game if the tickets are in the box seats or at least free.
On March 15, 2025, I watched “Eephus” for several reasons. The love of the game—watching movies even if I don’t think that I’m going to be into it. It was playing at my favorite local independent theater, Somerville Theatre, and I could enjoy almost anything under those conditions. I love supporting independent films, and the bonus was that it is a hometown favorite. It became required viewing once the director, Carson Lund, and the cast, which included Bill “Spaceman” Lee, a born scene stealer, and moderator WBUR’s Sean Burns were on the roster. The place was packed, rowdy and in love with what was on the screen, which helped me see it through their eyes. It was a good crowd. It is hard to be nostalgic for an experience that you never had, but it is easy to understand it in that context. It was not about the movie, but the experience, which in part is what this movie is about: being with a group of people enjoying a shared beloved pastime, the only thing that connects the strangers, then leaving that moment and those people forever appreciating it all the same despite the ephemeral nature.
I was not going to write a review, and maybe I still haven’t! “Eephus” is better with each viewing, especially with subtitles. The story takes place on and around Soldiers’ Field at dusk and ends after the game does. A radio acts as the soundtrack with documentarian Frederick Wiseman as the voice of the announcer. The radio prose dumps the reason that the day is so important. The credits and chapter titles are written on a baseball score book. Starting with the dieting, eternally angry Dilberto D Nunez (David Torres Jr.), everyone is giving the stink eye to Riverdogs’ manager, Graham Morris (Stephen Radochia), because he is not just the person who brought the team into the world as the founder, but he is also the one who will take it out. His day job is in construction, and he will benefit from the collective loss. Ordinary disputes get extra heated if they involve him as a cover for abuse. While some players are openly sentimental, their actions reveal how all the players want to hang on to that feeling and ring every drop from it. Discussion of making plans to hang out after falls apart as soon as they are uttered, and one by one, players leave the field earlier than planned out of obligation or to leave without having to say goodbye.
There are Saturday Night Live skits devoted to average men unable to sustain deep friendships and much hand wringing over the alleged male loneliness epidemic. A baseball field is a good solution to the latter, but not the prior. Who would notice with the hilarious banter, which is very New England! Living in places like Massachusetts demands a certain style of shooting the shit that is impossible to replicate elsewhere, and cowriters Lund, Michael Basta and Nate Fisher have it down cold, which is not easy to do. Just ask anyone who will see “On Swift Horses” (2024)—not an authentic line of dialogue in the entire movie.
Bobby Crompton (Brendan Burt) is awkward and does not fit in, so he says inappropriate things. The guys rebuke or ignore him, but still let him play, and it does not hurt that he is willing to buy friendship with a pizza pie. Garret Furnivall (Chris Goodwin) is simultaneously a mess and perfect. Ed Mortanian (Keith William Richards) is older but still looks good with his weather beaten skin and icy eyes but does not know the first thing about kids and gets one started on the road to a filthy habit. Bill Belinda (Russell J. Gannon) is the guy who probably knows how to talk around the office watercooler. Rich Cole (Ray Hryb) loves instructing better players but silently stares in resentment at Graham. Chuck Poleen (Theodore Bouloukos) is barely physically capable of staying in the game. Glen Murray (Peter Minkarah) is a character. John Faiella (John R Smith Jnr) can be salty and blue, but it is part of the local color rather than a red flag. Preston Red (Jeff Saint-Dic) is easy going and probably shown as the best player. Louis (Joe Penczak), the umpire, is by the book and feels no sentimentality.
Even if the dialogue in “Eephus” is improv, it is still impressive that so many actors could have that much chemistry and feel as if they have a shared casual history. It does not feel like the actors are acting, but just being themselves, which is also challenging. When actors speak in two different languages, people are impressed, and the acting in “Eephus” is similar. They play a character anda game, which is rooted in the actor’s athleticism or lack thereof, but they must at least match the expectations of the cameras so the action can be captured. It was entirely possible that the cast played naturally, but then the cameras would not be able to synchronize its movements to get the action onscreen. Even though “Eephus” is Lund’s first film, it is not a surprise that Lund could pull it off. Lund was the cinematographer of another film that filters seemingly spontaneous quotidian chaotic life through nostalgia, “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” (2024). No place in the world can beat fall in New England, and Lund captures the changing leaf colors, the ride abrupt end of the day that is still a surprise because the jackets are not needed yet. The dark drives people away with the sudden chill.
If you are not into baseball, “Eephus” is not for you, but if you give it a chance, you may want to give it another. Then another just to pick up more details. And soon you will be just like the story, never wanting it to end. If you are into baseball, especially if you played, this movie is literally an ode to you and the poignant past.
