Review: 'The Inspection' is a standard boot-camp movie, elevated by strong performances

Writer-director Elegance Bratton tells his own life’s story in “The Inspection,” and the result is a thoughtful variation on one of the sturdiest genres in movies: The boot-camp drama.

Bratton’s stand-in in this semi-fictionalized story is Ellis French — played by Jeremy Pope — a 25-year-old man who has been living on his own since he was 16. Living on the street, Ellis has decided his last chance to make something of himself is to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. 

First, though, he must get his birth certificate from his mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union). When they meet, we soon learn why Ellis has been estranged: Inez kicked him out when she found out that her son was gay.

Ellis lands at boot camp — the time, we quickly learn, is 2005, while the U.S. is still embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan — and immediately is run through the routines meant to strip away a recruit’s individuality and make him (it’s all men in this group) into part of a fighting force.

Camaraderie is hard to come by, though, when some of the other recruits start suspecting that Ellis is gay — and beat the crap out of him in the shower, with the tacit approval of the commanding drill sergeant, Laws (Bokeem Woodbine). Another sergeant, Rosales (Raúl Castillo), seems more sympathetic to Ellis’ situation, and gives him a chance to prove himself in training.

Bratton — whose documentary “Pier Kids” played the LGBTQ+ festival circuit in 2019 and 2020 (including at Damn These Heels in Salt Lake City) — mostly tells his boot-camp story in vignettes, the sort of incidents one might recount to non-Marines at the bar one night. The only sort of story structure is the schedule of the boot-camp program; the only tension comes from whether Ellis’ homosexuality will get him kicked out, and whether his mother will learn to accept him.

Pope (who has appeared on “Pose,” and received an Emmy nomination for the miniseries “Hollywood”) finds the steel underneath Ellis’ babyface facade, as the troubled young man becomes a confident Marine. And Woodbine captures the disgust Laws feels for having a gay recruit in his midst and the paternal gruffness of a man responsible for turning recruits into fighters. As with other boot-camp classics — “An Officer and a Gentleman” springs most readily to mind — it’s the performances that raise “The Inspection” to a higher level. 

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‘The Inspection’

★★★

Opens Friday, December 2, in theaters. Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, some nudity and violence. Running time: 95 minutes.