Kevin Smith’s newest film Yoga Hosers opened this weekend after it’s debut at Sundance earlier this year. The film star’s Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp as yoga obsessed, surly teenage convenient store clerks from Canada (the movie won’t let you forget). You may be noting the similarities between the conceits between Yoga Hosers and Smith’s beloved indie classic Clerks, but I can assure you that the similarities stop about there. Although Clerks. Involved funeral defamation and some post-mortem intercourse, the hijinks in Yoga Hosers make Clerks seem relatively ordinary. Speaking of the plot, it isn’t exactly the most nuanced or well realized part of the movie, but they certainly don’t pretend that it is. It involves a Canadian Nazi, who is also a sculptor trying to create a clone Nazi Army out of Bratwurst and Sauerkraut to wreck havoc and kill all the world’s critics. Gosh, who knew I would be writing that sentence this morning? For as insane as that sounds, the characters in the film are equally as aware as to how bat-shit that it and verbally acknowledge it on multiple occasions. I’m not saying that makes the plot better, but it does fit in with the films established feel that Mr. Smith himself called in the opening premiere speech he gave before the film “a midnight horror movie made for kids that can’t stay up late enough to watch it”. If Smith was aiming for a mix of horror and whimsy, from my own and the crowd’s reaction I would say they hit the mark pretty well.
However, The movie doesn’t start off in the midst of the crazy, we get a good twenty minutes or so of set-up for the characters and their situation which is the most unremarkable part of the film, relying only Smith’s dialogue for our lead teenage heroine’s to push the humor of the scenes. Smith is famous for his dialogue and as someone that is usually a huge fan of his character’s banter, Yoga Hosers leading ladies Colleen and Colleen’s lines, which can only be seen as Smith trying to write how those youngsters speak, can range from sort of clever to cringe worthy. We get some necessary set up there, however, introducing the two 12th grade boys who invite the Colleen’s to a party which looks to be the initial direction of the film. After that very beginning the movie was well paced and after the setup we are introduced to a looney cast of supporting characters such as Johnny Depp’s meandering Canadian detective Guy LaPointe, who is much less tedious as he came across in Tusk and has some genuinely good comedic moments, and Justin Long as the girls bi-polar Yoga Instructor Yogi Bayer, who was the most consistently charming of the supporting characters. As we progress we’re introduced to the Bratzi’s, foot tall nazi sausages played by Kevin Smith himself (I know, right?) and we delve further into the insane in that main story and in the 12th grade party storyline. As we talk about the supporting cast, I would be remiss to mention the host of cameos including Stan Lee, Haley Joel Osment, Jason Mewes, Harley Morenstein, and maybe most memorably long time Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy. Most of the cameos played really well with myself and the crowd, but I would be curious how they would be received by a crowd unfamiliar with Smith’s work.
The performances by the leads Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp (Kevin Smith’s daughter and Johnny Depp’s daughter) are, similar to Smith’s dialogue for them, hit or miss. They are great friends off camera and that chemistry is evident on screen. Both come across as amatuar at points, but are mostly serviceable throughout and have promising moments. I specifically remember well timed comedic beat delivered by Smith just before the first throwdown with the Bratzi’s.
Overall, Kevin Smith is showing that he’s going to make the films that he wants to see and what speaks to him without a huge amount of regard for a "general audience", for better or for worse depending on who you are. While the Colleen’s slashed through those evil little Bratzi’s with hockey sticks and cleaning equipment you could practically hear the brash enthusiasm and confidence of Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation blaring from the screen. The film is certainly not perfect and has clunky dialogue at points with some hit or miss acting from the first time stars. And despite, and sometimes in aid of, a thin, completely ridiculous plot, lots of camp, cameos and fan service; Yoga Hosers was much more fun than I anticipated. It was surprising and strange, a movie I can see it finding an audience once it comes out to streaming services and digital platforms. Maybe I’m an optimist, maybe I’m a Kevin Smith fan in on the jokes, but Yoga Hosers was a good time at the movies.
