The Inspection

Great

source: The Inspection

This is not Moonlight. It's not Full Metal Jacket or Jarhead neither. It's simply a great movie about character. If someone wants to believe in something greater then themselves then let them. I have to say that I expected more at the end but that's how I am when a film is great. Please watch with an open mind. If you are feeling that this has reminders from other movies then that's your opinion. I know the struggles of basic training. I watched this and I felt the characters in this movie. I'm glad they gave us at the end exactly how the movie should have ended. Great debut from this director. Again please watch with an open heart and mind.

Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) is a gay man disowned by his own overly religious mother (Gabrielle Union). He has been living in the streets of NY for five years. He returns home to get his birth certificate so he can join the Marines which seems like ruse, but it was not. French does well in boot camp until he showers with the guys and has a physical reaction that outs him. He is roughed up but persists. There are many who want to see him fail while he has a gay friend (Raúl Castillo) who understands his situation and helps him through. His boot camp commander (Bokeem Woodbine) wants him to be a mean monster as this is post 9-11 or to fail. This was the beginning of tolerance of gays in a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, but we already know. It shows a microcosm of how the military transitioned during this era. Guide: F-word. Sex and nudity (mostly in a watched film)

Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) lives in a homeless shelter. His mother Inez French (Gabrielle Union) rejects him. He intends to join the Marines. He's also gay. Right off the bat, the Inspired by True Events annoyed me. It's a small indie biography of a non-famous guy. I don't know why it has to be inspired by his story. Just do his story. It's a small indie anyways. It doesn't need the emotional over-dramatization. I would think that coming out to his fellow Marines would be compelling enough in real life. It may be a small thing, but the movie takes a wrong step so early on. Otherwise, it's fine. It has the opportunity for something great, but it's a bit of a grind.

There are some movies which take their own time in developing into something worthwhile and one has a choice of leaving it midway or keep hoping for the best. This is one such movie in this category which starts off showing a young black man (Ellis French) played by Jeremy Pope whose relationship with mom is strained to the point that she doesn't allow him to enter her home. (The reason is that he is gay and mom doesn't accept him that way.) He wants his birth certificate so he can join as a Marine and make his mom proud. So far so good. He gets into the marine training and we are exposed to extended scenes of the tough exercises schedule and life in barracks which we have seen many times in umpteen movies. (The tough drill Sergeant says that he doesn't care whether a person is straight or gay, black or white, his job is to turn him into a marine whom he calls "monsters" ) Such scenes carry on not just for 20 minutes or 40 minutes but for full 60 minutes. It is really a tough watch as the the storyline freezes and doesn't move forward. Finally after 60 minutes into the movie, there is a scene where he calls mom over for his graduation day and after some emotionally charged scenes between Ellis and his mom, the movie ends in a tame manner. Director Elegance Bratton has put in a heavy overdose of marine training scenes in the first one hour which becomes monotonous, boring and off putting. The other scenes are too cliche ridden to make an impact. The story could have been made an emotional one for better acceptance by the average audience. No doubt Jeremy Pope has acted well and brings out his confused state effectively but other than this the movie drags and bores.

With a mom like that who needs enemies. This works quite well on many levels. Maybe it'll clue some people into why queer people found families are more functional than the blood relations that can't see past their own fear and hatred. Externalized, embodied, by the military in many ways, this simple story of a black gay man with no one endeavouring to be a marine is an excellent debut. I am not sure anything was wildly exceptional, but there's something to be said for a competent execution across all the craft of a film on the first go. Most big budget films don't have that going for them, and yet look at their money and acclaim.

The Inspection starts off well. Interesting characters are introduced, the scene is set, and there's some intrigue added to the mix. However, as the film progresses it starts to turn into an identity politics melodrama. It visuals seem to ape Full Metal Jacket, but the story is more reminiscent of Twilight. It meanders and plods along, lulling the viewers mind to other places. Character wise, there is little grey area between the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys'. The bads are all racist homophobes, and the main recruits are all powerful and brave. This creates a film that feels bland and uninteresting because all the characters come off as cliched. As eluded to, I think if you're in the mood for a bootcamp military story, just watch the first half of Full Metal Jacket. Or if you really, really, really love army movies, you might find something in The Inspection.

Finding one's family may not always occur where one most likely expects it. For many of us, that typically comes with our blood relations. But sometimes circumstances arise that prevent that from happening, as is the case for a twentysomething gay Black man (Jeremy Pope) who has been on his own since age 16 when his close-minded single mother (Gabrielle Union) forced him out onto the streets to fend for himself. And, after years of bouncing around aimlessly, he decides to try getting his act together by joining the Marines, a seemingly unlikely choice but one that unwittingly helps him find what he's been looking for all along. Writer-director Elegance Bratton's fact-based debut narrative feature tells a compelling story of acceptance among those from whom it might least be expected and its absence where one would think it should most likely be present. The film's superb Independent Spirit Award-nominated performances by Pope and Union, along with fine supporting portrayals turned in by other members of the excellent ensemble cast (most notably Bokeem Woodbine and Raúl Castillo), truly give this picture its razor-sharp edge and its touching moments of heartfelt compassion, an unusual mix of elements on the same story, to be sure. In several regards, "The Inspection" also echoes groundbreaking themes first addressed in "Moonlight" (2016), though with slightly different but nevertheless equal significance. Admittedly, the production could probably benefit from a little more back story development and slightly brisker pacing in the first half-hour, but those are truly minor shortcomings in the greater scheme of things where this film is concerned. If this ISA candidate for best first feature is any indication of what we can expect in future works from this filmmaker, I can't wait to see what else he comes up with.

The policy of "Don't Ask..." was in effect when the movie was conceived -- and it serves as a time capsule of the ramification of that policy. In the event that a gay man is able to become a member of the armed forces, he has to contend with any number of abuses that are heaped up upon him in the name of discrimination. In the case of this film, it is doubled as the lead character is not only gay, but also black. The issue at heart is whether gay people are an asset to the military; for some reason, it was never a significant issue until recently, with the advent of Desert Storm. With the passage of the policy, the military has no right to refuse a gay person, which therefore leaves the gay man to become a pariah in his own platoon. Here, he is subject to a number of abuses by the rest of the squad, as he is treated with disdain by the Commanding Officer (who coincidentally is also black) and is beaten up by his fellow recruits, and has to fight back to be able to achieve a level of respect. Even though some of the film is somewhat "by the numbers," and has a character who is Muslim and therefore is also discriminated against, the film never resorts to cheap sentimentality; the Marine recruit never reconciles with his mother, who rejects him for being gay, which would be an absolute requirement in a Hollywood-ized version. He also is never given any chance of finding a sympathetic ear, despite every effort to do so. That is another reason why the script does not adhere to the standard Hollywood versions of gay themed dramas. Overall, this is an exceptional achievement, as it free of any simplistic view of a gay character. For that reason alone, it towers way over the run of the mill gay themed drama. Kudos to the Director and the main Actors for having the courage to break the rules in making a film that is so realistic, it could almost be a documentary.