EEPHUS
(director/writer: Carson Lund; screenwriters: Michael Basta, Nate Fisher; cinematographer: Greg Tango; editor: Carson Lund; cast: Frederick Wiseman (the documentarian plays a radio announcer, Bill Lee (former Red Sox pitcher plays a spectator), Joe Castiglione (Red Sox announcer, plays a team owner/snack truck owner), Keith William Richards (Ed), David Pridemore (Troy), Conner Marx (Cooper), Jeff Saint Die (Preston), Cliff Blake (Franny, scorekeeper), Stephen Radochia (Graham, Riverdogs coach); Runtime: 98; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Michael Basta, David Entin, Carson Lund, Tyler Taormina; Omnes Films production; 2024)
“A nice slice of life leisurely paced homage to small-time baseball.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Carson Lund’s feature debut is a nice slice of life leisurely paced homage to small-time baseball, filled with comedy and drama. It’s written by Lund, Michael Basta and Nate Fisher as an unconventional experimental sports film. It tells us about the amateurs who play only for their love of the game. It tries to show us why the rag-tag group of working-class men in the film care so much for the game and how their camaraderie triumphs even over winning.
The title is derived from the rarely ever thrown very slow curveball made famous by the former Boston Red Sox pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee, who makes a cameo as a fan.
The film is set at daytime on Sunday, October 1994, in suburban Douglas, Massachusetts, before a sparse crowd of family and friends, at Soldier’s Field. The middle-aged players (ages 30 to 60), from the home team Adler’s Paint and their rival Riverdogs, play a last game on the field that will be replaced after the game by a new elementary school.
The game goes extra-innings into the night and since the field has no lights, the teams play with inadequate improvised lighting.
Though the game is fully covered, the film is just as interested in the players ribbing each other from the dugouts and in finding out what motivates the men to play.
The nostalgic film is emotionally pleasing, pleasantly sentimental, atmospheric and its mostly amateur actors do a fine job playing the amateur ballplayers.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 4/28/2025 GRADE: B
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