Written and directed by Carson Lund, co-written by Michael Basta and Nate Fisher, 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. Starring: Cliff Blake, Johnny Tirado, Timothy Taylor, Ethan Ward, Jeff Saint-Dic, Keith William Richards, Theodore Bouloukos and David Torres Jr..
You can feel very quickly the deeply nostalgic, traditionally wholesome and charming old-fashioned tone and style that Carson Lund creates with Eephus. Its endearing simplicity holds a lovely warmth with an edge of bluntness. Then as the story unfolds, you start to see the layers behind that deceptive simplicity. The sadness, the regret and the way that these characters cling to their passion for baseball, how it keeps them going in spite of life’s disappointments. It creates that feel of lost youth and the disillusionment that comes from falling short of your dreams, landing in a mundane world. All of those qualities are clearly present in the performances, and the script from Lund, Michael Basta and Nate Fisher, the problem is that not much actually happens in Eephus.
All of those tones and themes have so much potential, but they just linger quietly as the film pads along at its own pace. It’s decidedly slow, and not taking the time to truly dig into all those emotional avenues that it opens up. Surprisingly, it also doesn’t make much of an effort to keep an eye on the score of the game, something that could have added an edge of competition and anticipation. It’s committed to a very everyday, gradual, winding style and there is value to that, but it can only take it so far.
To their credit, the ensemble really match that style, they create very down to earth characters who feel perfectly natural. Whereas it might sometimes be a negative to say none of the performances stand out, here it feels very appropriate as it casually meanders through the different characters. They don’t spend too much time on singular characters, instead trying to capture the atmosphere of a small town and their sweet but slightly embittered community.
Eephus is nostalgic, wholesome and humble, there’s some real charm to be found in its old-fashioned sensibilities. There’s a lovely ensemble at work who all do so well to create an organic atmosphere. The style is nicely committed to that natural, earnest feel, and it does have some interesting emotional layers beneath the surface. Unfortunately, it simply doesn’t make much of an attempt to dig them up, and quite little happens in its ninety-nine minutes, making it fall short of its potential.
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