The Inspection

Elegance Bratton, whose prior feature was the documentary Pier Kids (2019), chronicles his experiences as a young, gay Black man who, while homeless and rejected by his ideologically religious mother, decides to join the Marines, and finds self-acceptance within that punishing and homophobic system. Though deeply personal, the film has an almost bland routineness in that many scenes are almost identical to ones we've seen in countless boot camp and basic training pictures of many genres for the past fifty years. But this narrative regimentation is one of many fascinating aspects of the picture. Watching The Inspection I was aware that my understanding of the Marines' boot camp comes entirely from movies, predominantly of the Vietnam era. Yet it seems the process had changed little by the time this story is set, in the don't-ask-don't-tell era. Bratton uses our cinematic familiarity with this type of story to surprise us with the one time his film inverts our expectations. 

The script and direction make some questionable tonal shifts but the cast holds everything together. Jeremy Pope (an acclaimed stage actor nominated twice in 2019 for two separate performances, one in a musical and one in a play) stars as Bratton's surrogate Ellis French. Pope gives Ellis a determined expression, with his jaw locked and his eyes doing everything they can not to betray anything he's experiencing in a given moment. His face gives us all the exposition and backstory we need on this character. Whether he's being verbally abused by his toxic "Christian" mother, dressed down by his drill sergeant, or assaulted by his fellow grunts, his unwillingness to break and perseverance in succeeding within a system that doesn't value him, is powerful to witness.  

Bokeem Woodbine does an admirable job keeping his drill sergeant character, Leland Laws, from falling into cliche. Raúl Castillo's Rosales presents a more empathic, stern-father depiction of a Marine officer. Gabrielle Union will win the most acclaim for playing Ellis's mother, though I don't think she brings anything especially fresh to the stock role of a parent who puts their own needs or beliefs ahead of those of their child. Pope is the one who should garner praise. In Ellis French, he creates an almost entirely internal performance. We comprehend Ellis's desire to rebuild his identity through the arduous process of becoming a Marine, but we don't fully understand it until we can see in his face the hard-won personal victory.

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