Feature - Fantastic Film Festival Australia 2023 Program Launch/D&D: Honour Among Thieves

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures Australia, thumbnail courtesy of Eli Robinson.

Getting tired of the cinematic landscape lately? Have the recent spate of Oscar contenders releasing months after you thought they had felt a little too… sanitised? Looking for a movie that'll really push your boundaries? Fear not, fellow cinephile and probable Letterboxd user, because for the residents of Melbourne and Sydney, Fantastic Film Festival Australia is back in town, promising cinema without restraints.

They've got screenings ahoy, including but not limited to cult classics such as the scratch 'n' sniff-enhanced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Zoolander for their hallmark stark-naked showing, and a 2K restoration of Takashi Miike's genre-bending Audition, in case you needed to see a man eat vomit from a dog food bowl in finer detail (I've already got my ticket booked). But it's not all old blood, as the other 24 films on the program are far more recent, with films like the primal and cosmic descent into madness The Outwaters, a midnight screening of Evil Dead Rise, which looks poised to be a gnarly new entry in the franchise, and The People's J- uh, I mean, An Untitled and Perfectly-Legal Coming-Of-Age Parody Film, all of which having stirred up their fair share of buzz recently.

There's also Holy Shit!, a survival thriller about a man trapped in an overflowing portaloo, Lion-Girl, a sci-fi exploitation film featuring the talents of legendary manga artist and Devilman creator Go Nagai, and a horror film set at the dawn of mankind in The Origin. Last but not least we have a handful of Aussie contributions - Rolf de Heer's allegorical and post-apocalyptic The Survival of Kindness, Beaten to Death, a vicious slice of Ozploitation, and a supernatural giallo shot in Sydney called Blur. But before the festival kicks off on April 14th, artistic director Hudson Sowada presented an advanced screening of the fantasy blockbuster Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves to kick off this year's program launch.

Considering the tabletop roleplaying game's recent surge in popularity thanks in no small part to Stranger Things and the larger public's acceptance of nerd culture, the cultural zeitgeist is primed and ready for another crack at a D&D feature film. Directed by John Francis Daley (star of Freaks and Geeks) and Jonathan Goldstein - who as a duo previously directed Game Night - Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves follows a team of loveable misfits, led by the charismatic bard Edgin (Chris Pine), as they plan to break into a heavily guarded vault in order to retrieve the tablet of resurrection.

While the narrative may not be the film's selling point, its combination of fantasy, comedy and heist film is surprisingly refreshing, and the Marvel-ification of it all actually works better than the vast majority of films that attempt this modernised brand of blockbuster filmmaking, thanks in no small part to the film being actually funny. Between Pine's off-the-charts levels of charm, Regé-Jean Page's ethereal paladin straightman, Hugh Grant's scene-chewing smarminess, a handful of killer cameos (including the boys from Aunty Donna and Bradley freakin' Cooper), and Michelle Rodriguez being, well, Michelle Rodriguez, there's little in the way of dead air, even as the film overstays its welcome ever so slightly.

But its sense of humour isn't the only surprise Honor Among Thieves has up its  sleeve, as the flick also has a deliciously weird streak. While it could easily get bogged down overindulging in the mountainous lore that D&D has built upon over its many editions, revisions and campaigns, the film opts for a kind of voyeur's approach to the worldbuilding, explaining only what's necessary and letting the rest exist purely as a bizarre backdrop. An infant cat-person getting rescued from the mouth of a giant animatronic fish is a strong enough visual gag all on its own, likewise the beauty of an owlbear wreaking havoc is a sight that never should have been restricted to the imagination.

All in all, despite my initial scepticism when Dungeons & Dragons was picked for this year's launch (considering last year was the recently crowned Best Picture Everything Everywhere All At Once), I came out of the cinema understanding fully why the FFFA team picked it for the opener. It's weird, wacky and wonderful, bolstering marvellous effects of both the practical and computer-generated variety, and I left very, very excited for the festival ahead.

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves screened for the 2023 Fantastic Film Festival Australia program launch. The festival runs 14th to 30th April, check out the festival website for tickets and more info here.