Eephus (2024), now out on Blu-ray, is a great American movie because, like America’s Favorite Pastime, it captures the ways we can be and have forgotten how to be — communal, patient, and honorable, surprisingly loud, and sometimes surprisingly quiet and intimate.
L-R: Ari Brisbon, Patrick Garrigan, Brendand “Crash” Burt, and Russel J. Gannon in Carson Lund’s 2024 slow cinema sports drama EEPHUS. Photo courtesy of Music Box Films.
Set in the 1990s, Eephus is something new about something old, a slow-cinema sports film about the middle-aged men who spend their Sunday afternoons playing rec (recreational) league baseball instead of talking to their kids, and the people who watch them do it, with nothing but a radio to distract them. The game around which Eephus centers is the last game of the season and of their old ball field. One of the players, Stephen Radochia’s (Consumed; Katie Ffordé: Ziemlich beste Freundinnen) Graham, has been hired to bulldoze it and construct an elementary school on the land. The old makes way for the new as time marches on, but these old men persist nonetheless.
“Hotdogs will always be here, and that’s a good thing.”
“Eephus” is the name of a tricky pitch that moves so slowly that it’s difficult to pin down, and so the film is aptly named. The lead character of the film is a local score-keeper named Franny, astonishingly brought to life by Cliff Blake (Poor Glenna; A Fire Called Jeremiah). According to cinematographer-turned-director Carson Lund (Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point; Ham on Rye), Franny became the lead in the editing room, not on the page. The shifting nature of who we are when we’re together and the excuses we make to be together fuels the film at every level. It is an immaculate work of art, and it has received an immaculate Blu-ray fitting its careful compositions and local cast members.
Cliff Blake as Franny in Carson Lund’s 2024 slow cinema sports drama EEPHUS. Photo courtesy of Music Box Films.
This release sports two commentaries. The director (and producer) commentary is, of course, detailed and thoughtful, worthy of anyone’s Sunday afternoon. But it’s the cast commentary that reminds one of the best days spent playing with friends, sporting a whopping 10 members of the ensemble cast on the track at once, not in post-edited sections like most high-speaker-count commentaries. It is raucous and entertaining in a way very few special features are. There are other features that cinephiles will be thrilled by as well, such as Lund’s one-of-a-kind Photoshop storyboards, the only set of on-set-photography I’ve actually enjoyed clicking through, and a wild interview with famous leftist and Eephus-throwing southpaw pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee about his role and life. But what this Music Box release does right is what the best physical media releases do: it gets you to spend time in its world. Eephus is a film made for pondering, remembering, and rewatching, growing in complexity with every passing moment and earning its place among the best films released in the last year.
“It’s getting late early out here.”
A note on the special edition and the standard: There is a special edition that comes with a pack of baseball cards starring both teams. It looks real neat, but it was not sent to Elements of Madness for review, much to this reviewer’s sorrow. Otherwise, the releases are the same.
Eephus Special Features:
- Filmmaker Commentary with director Carson Lund, co-writer/producer Mike Basta and D.P Greg Tango
- Cast Commentary with a raucous lineup of actors from Adler’s Paint and the River Dogs
- Cast includes: Russel Gannon, Cliff Blake, Peter Minkarah, Keith William Richards, David Pridemore, Chris Goodwin, Stephen Radochia, Patrick Garrigan, Jeff Saint Did and Jonny Torado
- Behind the Scenes camcorder video
- Extra Innings Deleted Scenes
- Big Whiffs Blooper Reel
- Pickup Baseball Game at East River Park, NYC
- Storyboards and Image Galleries
- Inside Baseball – Essay by Caden Mark Gardner
- *Exclusive Interview with Bill “Spaceman” Lee
- *Director Q&A recorded live at Jacob Burns Film Center
- *In Conversation with Carson Lund at the Harvard Film Archive
- Plus, eagle-eyed viewers will be able to discover 12 hidden easter eggs!
*Only included on Blu-ray release (not on DVD release)
Available on digital April 15th, 2025.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD June 24th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Eephus website.
Final Score: 5 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply