The Inspection excels at subverting your expectation. We have our notions about a US Marine Basic Training drama, and that notion gets even more narrow when you learn that the protagonist is a queer character in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era. You can already imagine the suspense, drumming up drama about hidden truths and sexual identity; and to be sure, The Inspection is not not that, but writer-director Elegance Bratton is unafraid to dive into the fraught nuances of anti-gay culture that permeates our military and American culture at large. Perhaps it’s that the film is based on his actual life (Bratton served for years in the Marines before becoming a filmmaker) that gives his story ample verve. The movie has the intimacy of lived experience and a frank understanding of the mindless cruelties that permeate our definitional American experience.

Jeremy Pope plays Ellis French, a homeless teen who’s decided to join the Marines in an effort to give his life purpose. He’s been on the streets since the age of sixteen, when his mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union), kicked him out for his behavior (there are some inferences to trouble with the law, but her main objection is that he is gay). His plan seems hasty and foolhardy, and especially so when he arrives for boot camp and is greeted with the explosive ferocity of drill instructor Leland Laws (Bokeem Woodbine). Ellis does a poor job of passing for straight, and Laws, along with some of the more nefarious recruits, start the hazing in earnest. Things turn violent quickly, at times almost lethal, but with the intervention of the helpful assistant instructor Rosales (Raúl Castro), Ellis begins to see how he fits into this emotionally stunted, morally dubious world, and for the first time in a while, he imagines he may have found a home.

One will certainly draw connections to Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, the quintessential Boot Camp film, but The Inspection‘s judgments are not as drastic. In the end, Ellis (and presumably Bratton) never breaks spiritually and emotionally the way some, like Laws, expect, and the movie doesn’t take that hard of a hard line against the military’s subhuman tactics in producing its soldiers. No, instead Bratton’s interests lie in Ellis’ mental fortitude in the face of blind hatred, both in boot camp and at home. As the two sides of his demon, Union and Woodbine both wonderfully portray two different kinds of evil, both betraying Ellis despite their oaths of protection. Even then, Bratton still finds room for empathy for both of them, examples of the ways that trauma can trickle down.

Which brings me to the best part of the movie: Jeremy Pope. His Ellis is equal parts charming and maddening in his naive view of the Marines, desperate to find a way out of his hopeless situation. It’s quite moving to see how Ellis becomes more comfortable among his fellow recruits the more he allows his queerness to come to the forefront, a move that only infuriates his enemies but also wins some over to his side. This is Bratton’s second feature after the 2019 documentary Pier Kids, which chronicles a community of queer and trans youths living on the streets of New York City. Bratton’s own survival is inspiring, even if The Inspection feels like it does leave a lot of meat on the bone. The tone shifts throughout can make the film feel unsteady, but Pope’s performance grounds it into something much more profound than you’d expect.

 

Written and Directed by Elegance Bratton