Overview
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.
This movie – maybe moreso than any movie that I can remember – is targeted towards a specific audience. If you’re not a member of this group, I would steer far, far away from this movie. Let me explain.
The film starts off innocently enough: we see a bunch of middle-aged men arriving at a field that is going to be hosting its last baseball game before it is demolished. The movie itself is essentially a “hang” – there isn’t a plot, and the audience is essentially a fly on the wall…errrr… a spectator at a baseball game that is going at a leisurely pace. I didn’t pay the movie a lot of mind for much of the first hour, but that is ok. In fact, it might be more than ok – that is part of the beauty of baseball. Sometimes a baseball game is just a companion for two or three hours of the day.
As the day goes on and the sun begins to fade, there are conversations about when to end the game. The umpire has left as has an elderly fan. Some players left and came back. The sun fades into night and the players push on, knowing that a stoppage will be the end of the game. Eventually the game does end and the players – all these middle-aged men – didn’t know what to do with themselves. And there I was, a middle-aged former ballplayer who was for all intents and purposes sitting on the dugout bench next to them, trying to figure out what to do next while I reminisced about what had been.
Of course, the movie is largely metaphorical. People come and go in our lives, and eventually the light grows dim as the boys of summer fade away and we move into the next season of our lives. If you are not a middle-aged former ball player, I hope that one day you find a movie that moves you in the way that this movie moved me. I was fighting back tears as the film ended.
IHATEBadMovies.com reviews Eephus
Movie title: Eephus
Movie description: 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.
Date published: 2025-11-26
Director(s): Carson Lund
Actor(s): Cliff Blake, Johnny Tirado, Timothy Taylor, Ethan Ward, Jeff Saint-Dic, Keith William Richards, Theodore Bouloukos, David Torres Jr., Brendan Burt, John R. Smith Jnr., Nate Fisher, Conner Marx, Bill Lee, Joe Castiglione, Ari Brisbon, Keith Poulson, Stephen Radochia, Patrick Garrigan, Pete Minkarah, Ray Hryb, Russell J. Gannon, Chris Goodwin, David Pridemore, Wayne Diamond, Frederick Wiseman, Joe Penczak, Paul Kandarian, Lou Basta, Timber Holmes, Isabelle Charlot, David Metskhvarishvili, Annie Tisdale, Gregory Falatek, Luis Vicente, Stephen Gauthier, Jack DiFonso, David Sabot, Jason Barbieri, Adam DePalma, Mark Towle, Alex Flynn, Amy Drummond, Will Menaker, Will Sennett
Genre: Drama, Comedy
My Review
This movie – maybe moreso than any movie that I can remember – is targeted towards a specific audience. If you’re not a member of this group, I would steer far, far away from this movie. Let me explain.
The film starts off innocently enough: we see a bunch of middle-aged men arriving at a field that is going to be hosting its last baseball game before it is demolished. The movie itself is essentially a “hang” – there isn’t a plot, and the audience is essentially a fly on the wall…errrr… a spectator at a baseball game that is going at a leisurely pace. I didn’t pay the movie a lot of mind for much of the first hour, but that is ok. In fact, it might be more than ok – that is part of the beauty of baseball. Sometimes a baseball game is just a companion for two or three hours of the day.
As the day goes on and the sun begins to fade, there are conversations about when to end the game. The umpire has left as has an elderly fan. Some players left and came back. The sun fades into night and the players push on, knowing that a stoppage will be the end of the game. Eventually the game does end and the players – all these middle-aged men – didn’t know what to do with themselves. And there I was, a middle-aged former ballplayer who was for all intents and purposes sitting on the dugout bench next to them, trying to figure out what to do next while I reminisced about what had been.
Of course, the movie is largely metaphorical. People come and go in our lives, and eventually the light grows dim as the boys of summer fade away and we move into the next season of our lives. If you are not a middle-aged former ball player, I hope that one day you find a movie that moves you in the way that this movie moved me. I was fighting back tears as the film ended.
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My Review - 8/10
8/10