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The role-playing game\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>\u00a0is a daunting prospect, seeming to require both intense focus and a spirit of free-wheeling improvisation. Though a staple of the nerd arts, D&D<\/em> has long been a bridge too far for people like me, who are admittedly intrigued by its vast lore but are put off by the idea of, y\u2019know, actual\u00a0role-playing<\/em>.<\/p>\n There are of course novels that can be read, but they are intimidating in their number. I\u2019ll instead\u2014in true lazy millennial fashion\u2014let the new film\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<\/em> suffice as proof of D&D\u2019s<\/em> pleasures. The film, from co-directors\u00a0John Francis Daley<\/strong> and\u00a0Jonathan Goldstein<\/strong>, is a feast of fan worship that has the good sense to invite in the uninitiated. It\u2019s homage and gentle parody at once, seeking to capture the energy of playing the game with friends rather than trying to seriously literalize an expansive world. Which makes it a fitting film to open this year\u2019s SXSW festival, which has over the years developed a reputation as a clearing house for movies on the cleverer edges of geek culture. (The festival brought me to Austin this year as a jury member.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Goldstein and Daley have, in the past, collaborated on projects like\u00a0Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2<\/em>,\u00a0Game Night<\/em>, and\u00a0Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/em> as writers, directors, or both. Consistent throughout their work is a winning balance of sincerity and silliness; nothing is too smugly arch nor aggressively sentimental. That approach works quite well in\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>, which is, surprisingly, just as invested in emotional currents as it is in keeping the action-comedy bouncing along.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chris Pine<\/strong>, the indoor-kid\u2019s favorite Chris, plays Edgin, a former law enforcement agent (of a sort) turned thief who has lost his wife and become estranged from his teenage daughter. His steadfast partner in crime is Holga, a toughie played with typical stern charm by\u00a0Michelle Rodriguez<\/strong>. At the start of the film, they are stuck in a wintry prison tower, pleading for a pardon in a manner that allows Daley and Goldstein to nimbly deliver some crucial backstory. There is a predetermined thread to follow in\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>, but the film is also interested in the make-\u2019em-up twists and turns of an actual\u00a0D&D<\/em> game. One could, I suppose, want for more consequential logic in the film, but that would risk spoiling the point.\u00a0<\/p>\n The film is built as a series of quests, as new sidekicks are accumulated\u2014Justice Smith<\/strong>\u2019s nebbish sorcerer, Simon;\u00a0Sophia Lillis<\/strong>\u2019s cunning shape-shifter, Doric\u2014and various dangers are confronted. The film is stuffed with all manner of mythology and moves at frenzied pace, sometimes wobbling in its speed and density but usually regaining control just before things topple into irksome incoherence. While the film does traffic in the meta-snark that has badly infected pop culture in the last decade plus, it\u2019s done lovingly rather than as preemptive, self-effacing rebuke.\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons<\/em> is not trying to be cool to impress outsiders; it is proud of its dorky fascinations and persuasive enough to sway the skeptical toward its cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n Or, at least, it was for me, despite the obvious formula of the film\u2019s makeup. The cynical read on the movie is that it is simply a rival studio\u2019s attempt to ape the maximalist bonhomie of films like\u00a0The Avengers<\/em> and\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>. Indeed, there are several moments in\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons<\/em> that seem lifted directly out of the Marvel trope catalog. One could view that as Slugworth-ian theft, or more generously figure it respectful pastiche.\u00a0<\/p>\n Goldstein and Daley are, after all, slightly of the Marvel universe themselves. And they do manage to give familiar happenings some zesty new snap. Their action scenes are elastic and inventive, toying with physics but not relying too heavily on the empty magic of CGI. (I believe there are some honest-to-goodness practical effects in the film, too.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Daley and Goldstein also make great use of the analog talents of\u00a0Bridgerton<\/em> hunk\u00a0Reg\u00e9-Jean Page<\/strong>\u2014playing an annoyingly virtuous hero briefly enlisted to the ragtag crew\u2019s cause\u2014and\u00a0Hugh Grant<\/strong>, who gives yet another spry turn in this strange and wonderful new era of his career. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and it\u2019s hard not to follow suit. The film\u2019s friendliness, its eagerness to entertain and giggle alongside its audience, washes away most queasy feelings about the prefab IP construction that all this merriment is built upon.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Or maybe that\u2019s just a particularly potent strain of festival fever talking. Sitting among a crowd so delighted to be pandered to can be a subsuming experience, in which one forgets even one\u2019s most closely held principles. Much like it could be, I suppose, to finally shed self-consciousness and give in to the goofy earnestness of an\u00a0actual D&D<\/em>\u00a0game.\u00a0<\/p>\n This was perhaps best illustrated at the end of the great single-season series\u00a0Freaks & Geeks<\/em>, in which a character\u2014played by John Francis Daley, fittingly enough\u2014introduces a too-cool upperclassman to the wondrous, freeing possibilities of the 20-side die.\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<\/em> does much the same, though it spares one the indignity of having to talk like a wizard in some kid from school\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n