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The Inspection Movie Review

The Inspection is a 2022 drama film directed by Elegance Bratton and starring Jeremy Pope. It’s an uneven, but undeniably well made and acted movie.

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“I will break you.. I promise“

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A young gay clack man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. Apparently, this movie was based on a real life story of writer-director Elegance Bratton. He dedicated this story to his now diseased mother. While the story is truly inspiring, the eventual product begs the question just how much of it is authentic and how much has been made-up.

I am talking about the second act, which is the crux of the story. The military drama is infused with so many familiar elements that we’ve seen in countless movies with this subject before. You get all the regular bullying, the camaraderie and the perseverance of the soldiers depicted. The only difference here is that the protagonist is gay.

The movie portrayed gays in military in a complex manner. That is the only part of this military section that I genuinely enjoyed. In essence, the film showcased realistically that some parents of gay youth may be more homophobic than the marines themselves, especially black parents. The homophobia that he experienced while training was realistic, but the film blurred the fine line between real hate crime and the intense training methods used to toughen up the soldiers. Just the camaraderie between these soldiers felt very realistic as this is how men bond and speak.

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But the most interesting parts of the film are the beginning and the ending. I wish that more of the film was concerned with this fraught mother-son relationship as this was the emotional pull of the story. Gabrielle Union delivered one of the best supporting performances of the year in this role of a woman who loves her son, but cannot grapple with his sexuality. She was excellent in the film and she stole the show in a small, but vital role.

As for Jeremy Pope, I was glad to see him get a big role in a film after his memorable turn in Ryan Murphy’s ‘Hollywood’. His performance here is quite charismatic and nuanced with his emotiveness being particularly impressive. He actually managed to elevate what is otherwise a very weakly written role for a main character.

The overall characterization in The Inspection left a lot to be desired, though the movie still packed an emotional punch due to sensitive direction and storytelling. The cinematography is also effective as it accompanied each sequence with fitting colors and lighting. The dream sequences were particularly steamy. The dialogue was definitely sparse, but efficient. I just wished that the movie was more personal, though the themes that it deals with are deftly handled.

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