“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was an official admissions policy for the United States military that was in effect from 1994 until 2011, which allowed non-heterosexual people to serve in the military on the caveat that they do not disclose their sexuality, nor are they allowed to be asked about it. It is 2005 when Ellis French (Jeremy Pope), an openly queer man, visits his estranged mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union), for his birth certificate so that he can enlist to become a marine. Once at boot camp under the command of Leland Laws (Bokeen Woodbine), French is tested to the limits of his physical and mental capabilities, and while he finds some kindness from those in his unit, he also suffers from homophobia-fueled instances of abuse and discovers that the reporting system in place leaves him no real avenue for support. 

The Inspection is an account of writer/director Elegance Bratton’s own experiences of being disowned by his mother and the ten years of homelessness that followed until he enlisted in the Marines and graduated as a combat photographer. Released by A24, the 95-minute film offers a no holds barred look at institutionalized homophobia, while also being a very personal account of Bratton’s time in the service. It seeks to plumb the depths of the effects of human ignorance, a wide topic to tackle in its brief runtime, including the racism that was running rampant in the early years of post-9/11 American Society, but it is also very firmly Bratton’s story via French. It is moderately successful on both fronts, with minimal grandstanding, but it feels a little too surface-level to leave a real impact on audiences.  

Leading the film, Pope delivers a strong performance that runs an emotional gamut. It opens as he makes his way through the subway, wiping his lipstick in an effort to “man up” to meet with his mother. Pope has a difficult needle to thread in this film that is, an understatement, traumatic for his character. We are picking up with him already having been kicked out and disowned so there is a lifetime’s worth of animosity to sift through in this opening confrontation, and Pope has to vary his performance so that it does not become repetitive as we see him broken down time and time again in boot camp from the cruelty of his squad mates. He is very successful in portraying the different kinds of hurt that he experiences throughout the film; this opening sequence lands very differently than the beating he will take in the shower, and again very different from after having almost been purposefully drowned during a water exercise.  

What The Inspection does very well is that it does not conflate French’s personal victories as absolution for the system in place which allowed for the injustice, even though there is a feeling of triumph during the final test when he pummels his squad leader, Laurence Harvey (McCaul Lombardi), who had held a vendetta against French from the very early days of their training. There is still work to be done, and while the military and society have made incremental steps forward towards wider progress and acceptance, French’s graduation, without discrediting the achievement, is not seen as the key that unlocked this shift, but rather one story of countless others who had faced similar harassment and abuse, yet still went on to proudly serve their country despite the ridicule. This is highlighted in a conversation late in the film between French and Rosales (Raúl Castillo), one of the instructors that was much more sympathetic towards French, who said that just because there are admission policies in place does not mean that there are not queer people serving in the military, just that they have been silenced. He goes on further to explain saying that if there truly were no LGBTQ+ people serving, simply put there would be no military meaning that these draconian policies only hurt the institutions by denying themselves of the talent and expertise that those in the marginalized communities can offer. 

There is a second issue which The Inspection tries to grapple with in addition to homophobia in the military, and that is racism within the ranks. It does so not through French, but through Ismail (Eman Esfandi), a Muslim recruit in the same squad. This subplot is very well done, and Esfandi excels in the small yet important role. In his blind intensity during a shooting exercise, Laws drags Ismail from his firing position to the target. Some in the squad do stand down at this display, but it is a very uncomfortable scene to watch. While the film remains French’s story of overcoming his own obstacles, it is important to see how embracing an “us vs them” mindset can poison a group from within unless there are people who will stand up and denounce the intolerance. 

After the final test, it is graduation day, and there has always been the lingering question of whether or not Inez will show up for her son. She arrives late, but she does arrive and appears to have undergone a change of heart in seeing French standing there in his fresh dress uniform. As the festivities continue, though, it becomes clear that she has not changed her ways, but unfortunately, the script does not give Union enough depth here for her character. Each new sequence results in her stating her “hate the sin, love the sinner” viewpoint, and as she continues to harp on the same argument time and time again, she becomes almost cartoonishly cruel like an evil stepmother from a classic Disney fairy tale; she is not a person with any motivations, she is just mean. It is a small failure in an otherwise successful script to not allow Inez to have more depth, and it does not need to be done in a way that explains and absolves her viewpoint, but to just home in on the pure nastiness without cause or reason does a disservice to the message as it does not allow her son to try and disarm some of those fears. 

There is also a sparsity within how the film is constructed, especially early on when the film is taking its time to set and establish a tone. Lachlan Milne’s camera captures the landscapes zipping by on the bus, or it is focused on French for long periods of time while the actor, silently, wrestles with how to present himself. It should be noted that French is not questioning his sexuality, he is openly gay, but rather he is stuck walking the line of how “out” he can act in these different scenarios. It almost feels like indie-shorthand and comes off very hollow making for a rough first act until Oriana Soddu’s editing becomes a little quicker helped along by a second act that is not so internally minded as the first. 

The biggest disconnect in the language of the film, though, comes from an otherwise evocative and beautiful score by Animal Collective. The mediative ohm-ing which comprises much of the score that punctuates the passage of time as it plays over the morning’s sunrise is quite relaxing, though it does not seem to fit in with the rest of the narrative. This melding of audio and visuals is very reminiscent of Claire Denis’ Beau Travail (1999), and while the two films are seeking to do drastically different narrative work, they share this language that unfortunately does not work as well for The Inspection, even when the camera does pry and focus on the male form of the soldiers. Unlike Denis’ work which in a way could be considered an erotic thriller despite its poetic structure and flowing nature, Bratton’s film seems to have no true home for lust except for some very brief scenes that, while there is finally that homogeneity between what we see and what we hear, they are outlying sequences in the bigger picture. The story we see is not a romantic military fantasy, but to hear the score blindly feels like it should be and when our eyes are open, it truly works its best on the few sexually charged scenes in the film. 

The Inspection is a labor of love, a painful but important memory, and as the sole reason and purpose of making the film, it is a resounding success. With the weight of the film on Pope’s shoulders, he carries it the entire way, never flinching from the burden and delivering a poignant, nuanced, and ultimately triumphant performance. There is such a genuine sense of achievement here that does not feel present in other fictionalized runs through boot camp scenarios. While Laws and the rest of the instructors feel steeped in trope, they do not feel as much of a caricature as other instructors have been made out to be. It is not just a matter of truth being stranger than fiction, but rather, The Inspection stands as a testament to all the men and women who persevered against their differences to pursue a military career, and that heart and soul which guided Bratton’s direction is what makes the film stand out in the crowded genre.