Eephus plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics

There Is No Joy in Nashua

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.(from  "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

             Eephus (Carson Lund)   Not Rated    98 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

 My posting will be a bit short this week as other activities have taken over some of my free time (including getting updates on my hearing aids and the CPAP machine that helps correct my sleep apnea [the more I advance in age—77 now—the more I can better appreciate the bodily changes my parents had to endure as time keep marching onward for them]), while a related reality is that I liked this film quite a bit but really have very little to say about it except a healthy endorsement to seek it out, although its theatrical run seems to have been brief (opened on March 7, 2025 in domestic [U.S.-Canada] theaters, grossed a mere $516 thousand [no international release]), so if I can encourage you to see it you’ll need to turn to streaming where it rents for $5.99 from Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV+.  The CCAC heartily encourages you to do so, with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at an astounding 100%, while the expectedly-lower Metacritic average score is 83% (still quite high for them).  These results, admittedly, are based on low samples—MC’s score is the result of only 21 evaluations, with their audience score being 7.7 of 10 replies; RT’s perfect response is based on 72 reviews, with their roughly 50 audience remarks going 63% positive (many of those were highly complimentary with 4 or 5 stars ratings [of 5]), although you should be warned that the audience members who didn’t like it were at times quite hostile, gave it 1 or even ½ stars with complaints of dullness (the old “like watching paint dry” dismissal), so think carefully about what I’m saying here regarding whether this is even worth 6 bucks and 98 minutes of your time.  It’s a baseball movie, but not about triumphs obtained in the big leagues as with the equally-fully-fictional The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984) where Robert Redford (with inspiration from Glenn Close) leads the New York Knights out of obscurity or the somewhat-fictional A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992) where Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Rosie O’Donnell (among many others) present an uplifting story based on the actual All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1954), recognized in the Cooperstown, NY Baseball Hall of Fame (it's a great tribute).

 Eephus isn’t as spectacular as either of those films—actually, it’s consistently quiet and low-key—but if you care about the sport of baseball or just can appreciate how something that would likely be ignored by a large percentage of the population means everything to the few who are deeply involved in it, then I think you’d find Eephus* to be an enjoyable investment into your cinematic treasury.  All that we have here is a game in the 1990s at (actual) Soldiers Field in Nashua, NH where a group of mostly older men in an amateur recreational organization are playing their last game in a local stadium before the land is lost to them as a school will be constructed on the site.  Winning this farewell event means everything to the squads of the Adler’s Paint and Riverdogs teams, although there’s only 1 old guy, Howie (Lou Basta), in the stands to watch and even he leaves before the game’s over.  There are a couple dozen folks to see here (including Franny [Cliff Blake], the scorekeeper), although for me the most important ones are the pitchers, AP’s Ed Mortanian (Keith William Richards) and the Riverdog’s Troy Carnahan (David Pridemore) who keep “hurling” (as best they can), until Troy has to come out (yet he’s put back in a reliver later on—rules are a bit loose on this day).  Basically, the game plods along as best these guys can keep up their efforts, until it’s tied at 4-4 with the umpire calling it a tie as he’s been paid only for so many hours, doesn’t intend to work any overtime for free.  The disheartened players agree to keep going, though, with Franny filling in as the ump even as daylight fades to twilight, with car headlights brought in around the field to give some semblance of illumination that’s not always effective.  Along the way, through some dugout chatter, we learn about the eephus pitch, then another old pitcher, Lee (Bill “Spaceman” Lee), wanders in, takes over from Troy, throws a few of those oddball deliveries himself.

 

*The title has an ambiguous connection to a famous, odd, rarely-used pitch in which the baseball travels toward home plate slowly in a high arc which often confuses the batter due to its trajectory, often resulting in a surprise strike.  Exactly how that relates to the overall content of the film isn’t made obvious here, but I suppose it refers to these largely-unknown players in their final game at this location just trying to achieve something unexpected if only for their own personal satisfaction.  Better explanations of title/reference are encouraged in the Comments option far below in this posting.  Trivia: Bill Lee was an actual pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, used an eephus pitch in Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, but it was hit for a 2-run homer, helping the Sox lose that Series.

              (This photo's a bit  out o(f focus, but by the end of the game so where these players.)

 ⇒Despite continuing play in the dark, neither team is willing to stop as this final game on their field means too much to all of them.  Finally, the Riverdogs use a position player to pitch with the bases loaded of AP players with the game won on the letdown of walking in the winning run.⇐  There’s no great athleticism shown here nor any spectacular baseball antics (I’ve seen much better years ago when aging pros would play a shortened “Old Timers” game prior to a regularly-scheduled contest; in this film we get occasional quotes tossed in from some of those famed men), but the sincerity of these guys watching a crucial part of their lives come to an end was truly touching for me (maybe I could relate too easily) and I think it could be for you too, unless you’re so young you have to watch something like this to even begin to comprehend what’s it’s like to grow old, know there are more days behind than ahead of you.  (It probably also helped while watching Eephus last Friday night that my wife, Nina, and I could occasionally pause the film to switch over to the cablecast of our [once Oakland, now West Sacramento] Athletics beat the Cleveland Guardians 5-1 [although the A’s, in typical fashion, lost the next 3 until beating the Detroit Tigers 3-0 today]).  Well, that’s all I’ve got time for now, so I’ll just say that if you’d appreciate a low-action, sincere human interest story, Eephus could work very well for you.  My closing bit of a Musical Metaphor comes from the end credits of the film, Tom Waits’ “Ol’ 55” (referring to a 1955 Buick Roadmaster of his; song on the 1973 Closing Time album) which you can listen to here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeeK37wrBDQ&list=RDBeeK37wrBDQ&start_radio=1: “Well, my time went too quicky / I went lickety-splitly out to my ol’ 55/ As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy / God knows I was feeling alive […] Just a wishing I’d stayed a little longer / Lord, don’t you know the feelings getting stronger” (lyrics that for me get to the heart of what this film’s all about even if they’re not specific to its contents).  One last thing about appreciations, though: I’ve read Waits didn’t like The Eagles' version of his song (“antiseptic”) so here they are with it (1974 On the Border album) for you to decide what you prefer.

         

SHORT TAKES

           

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

 

Options: (1) IMDb's Five Things to Watch on the Week of 6/23/2025; (2) Recent theatrical releases you can now stream at home; & (3) New and upcoming sequels, prequels, spin-offs.

 

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