Eephus

Carson Lund · 2024 · 98 minutes

An adult men’s recreational baseball game stretches to extra innings the day before their beloved field is demolished. Humor and nostalgia intertwine as daylight fades, signaling the end of an era.

Programmer’s Note

Baseball is the ultimate hangout sport, with no clocks determining the length of the game and plenty of dead time between pitches for small talk — in the stands, in the dugouts, and on the field. So it’s surprising it’s taken so long for us to get a great baseball hangout movie. Richard Linklater has come close a couple times, with Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) and Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach (2008), but Eephus is something different, a movie structured entirely around the leisurely pace and competitive camaraderie of an afternoon at the park.

Director Carson Lund grew up with aspirations of playing professional baseball, and in interviews for Eephus, he often compares his job on this film to that of a coach: “with such a huge cast and crew, and so many of your creative ideas already agreed upon with your key collaborators, so much of your daily work is guiding the mood of the set.” Every character — and there are more than two dozen speaking parts — seems lived-in and familiar, like a favorite uncle or that neighbor who tells great stories and drinks too much on the 4th of July.

Eephus was shot at Soldiers Field in Douglas, Massachusetts, which has a lost-in-time quality, like the film itself. Lund imagines the game taking place in the ’90s, but there are few unambiguous markers on screen. No one ever looks at a phone, which is significant if for no other reason than it’s so hard to imagine happening today. As a result, we in the audience, like the players on the field, experience the passing of time unmediated by technology. It’s a vibe.

Eephus is one of the latest movies to emerge from Omnes Films, a team of LA-based filmmakers who trade roles on their various productions, many of which are shot in regional locations. Lund, for example, is credited as co-writer, director, producer, and editor of Eephus, but he also served as director of photography on Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (Tyler Taormina, 2024), which like Eephus premiered this year at the Cannes Film Festival, and Topology of Sirens (Jonathan Davies, 2021).

Co-writer, producer, and Omnes co-founder Michael Basta will introduce Eephus and participate in a Q&A.