The Inspection

Ellis French was put out of the house at sixteen. His mother will not accept him and he has lived on the street for years. At twenty five he makes a decision: he will join the marines. The reason is not patriotism; he has no other option and wants his mother to look at him. He enters basic training. He is noticed from the first day. The drill instructor treats him differently and the other recruits keep their distance. Ellis endures it. There is an incident in the camp and he nearly dies. Then he endures it again. Elegance Bratton writes and directs. Jeremy Pope plays Ellis and Gabrielle Union his mother; Bokeem Woodbine and Raúl Castillo are in the cast. It is an American production. The story rests on the director's own life; Bratton was put out at sixteen, lived homeless for years and then joined the marines. Bratton served as a cameraman in the military and moved into cinema from there. Its ground is a regulation in force at the time; service members were forbidden to state their sexual orientation and the film takes that as a direct subject. The narrative does not offer the military as a deliverance; the camp is shown as both a refuge and a system of pressure. Jeremy Pope's performance carries the picture. The mother is its hardest passage and the film grants her no softening. Its limit is structure; the narrative proceeds close to a shape and the last section speeds up. Who it is for: viewers who like American independent cinema and true life stories. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the violence explicit, and the shape familiar.