150 Word Review: 'Eephus' (2024)
Root, root, root
Allow me to hijack a recent-ish meme: playing baseball on the weekends is a cure for male loneliness. Any casual student of viral social panics knows that men are sad, lonely, and rudderless, but in director Carson Lund's mellow hangout sports comedy Eephus, the dudes are alright. This is a movie about America's pastimes, which include talking trash, throwing curveballs, and drinking beer.
In Eephus, an amateur New England baseball team named after their sponsor, Adler's Paint, plays a final game against their rivals, the Riverdogs, on their beloved ballfield before it's razed and a school is built. It's mostly a cast of unknowns, a murderer’s row of Regular Joes. These middle-aged men take a child's game seriously, their various grown-up responsibilities lurking off-field. The low-budget movie is melancholy but not sentimental. It's also pleasantly existential: time creeps along, but to quote Yogi Berra, "it ain't over till it's over."
Essay: When In Doubt, Watch 'Moneyball'
