Review of The Inspection (2022) by Moviemitch96 — 01 Dec 2022

A young gay African-American man (Jeremy Pope) who has been all but cast aside by his homophobic mother (Gabrielle Union) hopes to prove his worth to her by enlisting in the Marine Corp and enduring several weeks of boot camp in a system that threatens to break someone like him.

Written and directed by Elegance Bratton, this film serves as a semi-autobiographical recounting of his time spent in the Marine Corp circa 2005, a time when homophobia was arguably at one of its highest peak moments.

I could clearly feel his own personal struggles whilst watching this film and the experiences he must have went through. And although it's meaningfully told, it still can't help but feel a little cliched at times, especially with the drill instructors (Bokeem Woodbine in particular) feeling like cardboard cutout insert antagonists with several of their scenes and dialogue, along with a rather anticlimatic-feeling final act that left me wanting a little more.

On the flipside however, Pope's incredible lead performance is, more often than not, enough to carry the film quite nicely, and Union as his cold, distant mother even turns in a raw supporting performance.

Overall, while it's well made and well intended, storywise it comes up a little short due to falling for a couple of narrative cliche traps here and there, along with a handful of stereotypical characters to boot.