Eephus: The Baseball Hangout Movie
Plus a Q&A With John R. Smith Jnr
If you haven’t heard, there’s a new baseball movie out. Carson Lund’s directorial debut, Eephus, is an absolutely stunning addition to the baseball film canon, and the best movie about our national pastime since Moneyball (2011). I had the opportunity to see a screening of this film at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center which is located on the Lincoln Center campus in NYC. The theatre was filled with cinephiles, baseball fans, and many of the cast memebers. Will Menaker (Chapo Trap House) hosted director Carson Lund and co-star Keith William Richards in a live Q&A after the conclusion of the film.
Synopsis: Two recreational baseball teams, the River Dogs and Adler’s Paint, have been meeting on their New England field on Sunday afternoons for longer than anyone can remember. These middle-aged sportsmen can’t run as fast as they used to or connect as reliably with a pitch, but their vigorous appetite for socializing, squabbling, and busting chops remains undiminished. After the know-nothing county board opts to raze the baseball diamond to make way for a school, the teams meet for one final game at their beloved Soldier’s Field, with girlfriends, kids, and local hooligans as intermittent spectators. As day turns to night and innings bleed together, the players face the uncertainty of a new era. Lovingly laid in a vanished Massachusetts of the mid-1990s, Carson Lund’s poignant feature debut plays like a lazy afternoon, perfectly attuned to the rhythms of America’s eternal pastime. Named for a rarely-deployed curveball, Eephus is both a ribald comedy for the baseball connoisseur and a movie for anyone who’s ever lamented their community slipping away.
Baseball has a long history on the silver screen and, as a result, we’ve seen the game explored through almost every genre imaginable, from docudrama to date movies, beloved kids’ classic to raunchy adult comedy. But, when it comes to the hangout movie genre, baseball has seen little playing time.
Hangout movies are movies where the plot and beats of the movie play back-up to the interaction and dialogue between the characters. Think of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction or the Kevin Smith comedy Clerks. Over the last few decades, Richard Linklater has become the modern master of the hangout movie. Dazed and Confused, the Before Trilogy, and Slacker, are among the most critically acclaimed films in the genre. They all have mechanics that drive the film from start to end (however vague they seem to be), but viewers are mostly there for the interplay between characters.
Richard Linklater directed a film, Everybody Wants Some!!, that came out in 2016. This movie was inspired by his own experiences playing baseball at Sam Houston State and follows a Texas college baseball team through their final summer weekend before the fall semester begins. I love this movie, but it is much more of a hangout movie than a baseball one.
Eephus is different. It employs a perfect double-play-turning tandem of baseball and hangout. With the stakes set and ultimate ending of the film forecast while the players are just arriving at the field, there is nothing left to do but hang out and play ball. The only thing to do is hang out and play ball.
This is a true baseball lover’s movie. Every player, spectator in the stand, and community member passing by has their own fully formed, baseballese-laced sentiments about the sport.
The cinematography is intimate and gorgeous, giving moviegoers the feeling that they are on the team. The atmosphere is melancolic and wistful, but not in a sad way. Its the feeling that keeps you watching your team even though they’re 15 games out of the wild card race. Most of us here are Mets fans, we know this feeling well.
Eephus is currently being played in just under 100 theaters across the country, but it deserves a much wider release. So, if there’s an indie theater in your community, request a screening! If you don’t have access to a screening, Eephus will be available on VOD/Digital on April 15, 2025.
John is an award-winning, classically-trained, character actor who's worked in CT theatre scene for nearly 30 years. He portrays the catcher for Adler’s Paint, John Faiella, in the new baseball hangout-movie, Eephus.
Q: What is the highest level of baseball you've competed in?
A: I played little league/rec league through my freshman year in HS. I was never gonna make the HS team, so after that I focused on theater and swimming.
Q: If you have one, what is your favorite baseball moment? This can be a moment as a player or spectator.
A: It’s a coin flip between taking my son to OG Yankee Stadium for the first time (he was maybe 7 or 8, it was right before the Sox broke the curse) to a game against the Mariners and as we were leaving down the ramps he spotted a guy in a BoSox hat and yelled “1918” and the entire flow of fans immediately joined in until the guy stuffed his hat in his coat, and my son was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
OR
Taking my dad to the old stadium for the first time. He’s a lifelong Yankee fan, who grew up in PA. When I moved to CT and started going to games regularly in the 90’s and early 00’s, I wanted to take him to finally see the Cathedral of Baseball. The fates conspired against us for years. I got tickets for a late season game around my son’s birthday, but 9/11 moved it to a road game. Then a couple years later we tried again, and my truck started randomly smoking on the Deegan. So, we turned around and went home to fix it. Then a few years later I took him to Old Timer’s Day. While we’re standing outside in line to monument park, folks we were with kept asking him if he was excited about finally being at the stadium. He said: “I’m not here until I’m inside. I’ve been close too many times before.” Once we cross the threshold he screams “I FINALLY MADE IT!” and everyone around: fans, vendors, security, cheered.
Q: Favorite Baseball Team?
A: After those stories, obviously I'm a Yankee guy. My dad loved The Mick, and my grandfather loved The Babe, and my dad’s cousin could have been Lou Pinella’s twin. So even growing up outside Pittsburgh and going to games at Three Rivers as a kid, I’ve been a pinstripes guy. I do have a soft spot for the Pirates. They were the only games I could really watch in the days before cable.
Q: Favorite Baseball Movie?
A: How do I choose? Major League is certainly up there. We actually watched that at the cast lodge while were filming. A League of Their Own, The Natural and Field of Dreams are also up there. And then there's The Sandlot. We called Eephus “Sandlot for Grownups” while we were filming, and a lot of my baseline character ideas started by me thinking, what if Ham grew up to be a plumber?
Q: While playing for the New York Mets, pitcher Noah Syndergaard stated he thought The Wave should be banned from stadiums. Are you pro or anti-Wave?
A: Back at the old stadium anytime people would try to start it we used to stay seated and chant “send that shit back to Shea”, but honestly, it doesn’t bother me the way it does some folks. Beach balls on the other hand … *angry cursing emoji*
Wonderful to read! John is one of the greats — on stage and screen, and certainly in life! We had such a terrific experience making this film, and his warmth and wit added immeasurably.