Eephus

2025 / Dir. Carson Lund / 98 minutes

From Bull Durham and Field of Dreams to Moneyball and The Sandlot, baseball has long been a cinematic conduit for telling human stories, and Carson Lund’s directorial debut Eephus stands proudly among the best to feature America’s favorite pastime. It explodes with a special kind of emotional whimsy that’ll make you nostalgic for a sport never played nor watched, and a time never experienced. Following two amateur baseball teams as they play one final game before their stadium is demolished, Eephus is a hangout movie filled with authentic characters and even more ordinary dialogue. Playing out almost in real-time, Lund may as well have set up cameras to capture real people ribbing each other and discussing their mundane lives, playing until the sun goes down, until players and officials leave to go home early, until they can all barely stand to keep going but can’t walk away without finishing either. Lund wields bittersweet sentimentality powerfully, uniting his ensemble cast not simply by their shared love of the game, but also by the human connection they share wasting time together on the ball field, secretly hoping the game won’t ever end.