Eephus

This one really has some magic in it. It captures so many minutiae of both people I’ve known and moments I’ve lived that it just impacted me deeply. Almost character reminded me of somebody I’d played sports with, and there were so many little touches that just made me fall in love with it. It was funny throughout (there are so many great jokes and one-off lines littered throughout this thing) and it made me tear up multiple times. The look and feel of this movie is pretty tough to beat, at least in terms of my nostalgic sensibilities. There’s so much ambient sound included, the environment and the quirks and flaws of the people around the park feel very present. The choice to focus mostly on the players themselves rather than the on-field action was awesome, and really evoked that sitting in the dugout bored as hell feeling in a charming way. I love that despite many side narratives being introduced, none of them get more than a cursory exploration. The focus remains on the beautiful and ugly game of baseball. I do think it drags a bit towards the end, but this is at least thematic so I wouldn’t dock it too much for this. It’s supposed to drag on and be a bit tedious, and I’m not sure the best way to portray that without requiring a bit of boredom from the audience. Seeing at the end that this was dedicated to the real “Frannie” hit me hard. It turns out beyond being a beloved fixture of his community he was also a batboy for my Pittsburgh Pirates in the mid-eighties. Seeing it with that additional layer of love for his character just has so much impact for me. "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" - Lou Gehrig