Film Review - The Inspection (2022)

Elegance Bratton’s feature directorial debut has been something of a festival circuit darling, gathering followers at Toronto, New York and London. Inspired by his personal experiences as a black, gay man going through the rigours of US Marine training, The Inspection harks back to familiar images of new recruits, Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket in particular. But it’s set in 2005. Desert Storm is over, it’s now the War On Terror and, most importantly for the central character, the era of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT).

In force until 2011, the policy prevented the US military from discovering or revealing gay service – but it also barred anybody who was openly gay from serving in the armed forces. Ellis French (Jeremy Pope), came out in his teens and has been rejected by his mother ever since. His options for a future have run out and he s the Marines, wanting to succeed in a system he knows is likely to brand him an outsider and treat him accordingly. But he’s reassured by the thought that, even if he dies in training, he’ll be seen as a hero because he was in uniform. It’s a gruelling, brutal regime and the prejudice he encounters is even harder to take. Yet, with from unexpected sources, he starts to acquire the sense of identity he craves, even if his mother’s acceptance is still just out of reach.

As each recruit signs up for training, they’re asked – actually, the question is bellowed in their faces – if they’ve ever been a communist, committed a felony, been a homosexual or taken narcotics. Which tells us everything we and French need to know about homophobia in the military. But at boot camp, he discovers he’s not as good as he thought at hiding his sexuality. It opens up a world of toxic masculinity that he’s not been used to, making him a constant target for the majority of other recruits. They bully and beat him, and even set him up to fail his final tests, which would result in him being thrown out.

Bratton takes a bold, uncompromising approach to the obstacles put in French’s way. As a directorial debut, it’s impressive, drawing not just on his experiences in the Marines but also behind the camera making documentaries. You can almost smell the sweat in the barracks. There’s no big moments, no climactic speeches: instead the director concentrates on a more personal, introspective tone and it’s all the more powerful for that. The addition of dream sequences occasionally softens the frequent blows, giving the film an identity of its own so that it stands apart from others which have walked a similar path. And it remains true to itself, never allowing anything remotely cliched or sentimental to venture into shot.

He also gets excellent performances from his cast, Pope in particular who has exactly the right amount of vulnerability and determination to carry the audience’s with him from start to finish. Equally powerful is Gabrielle Union as his mother in a portrait of an unflinchingly homophobic parent who loves her son but cannot accept him. It’s a character who provokes conflicting reactions and Union juggles them with skill. Based on this, Bratton is definitely a filmmaker with confidence, insight and strength and definitely a name to watch out for in the future.