The Inspection
A24 | Release Date: November 18, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubPhil PirrelloNov 18, 2022
The Inspection isn’t a perfect movie, but there are times when it feels like it’s tantalizingly close. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 17, 2022
The metamorphosis that Bratton explores, and that Pope embodies — the way Ellis both changes and remains ever faithful to himself — is subtle, bittersweet and beautiful. Read full review
90
TheWrapMartin TsaiSep 14, 2022
The director hits no false notes. He knows firsthand the feelings each scene should convey, but he also has the skills to render them accurately. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 9, 2022
There’s brutality but also an understated hint of poetry in the way Bratton tells his story from deep inside it, making beautiful use of Baltimore experimental pop group Animal Collective’s richly varied electronic score, which often plays in gentle counterpoint to the harshness of what’s unfolding. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 9, 2022
This is a human story, as messy and complex and maddening as any ever told, and while Bratton makes it his own (how could he not?), the generosity with which he shares it with us make it special indeed. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 19, 2023
This well-acted outsider’s-eye view of the inner workings of the US armed forces is fiercely candid, in its condemnation of the brutality that is enmeshed in the training programme, and in its celebration of the bonds and brotherhood that grow between fellow cadets. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackDec 14, 2022
The labour the filmmaker undertakes here is similarly personal and intimate; it is clearly an act of healing as well as an offering for others who see their lives echoed. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreNov 23, 2022
Bratton, who has an eye for compelling framing and unexpected beauty, has made something more complicated than a treatise against the power structures enshrined in the military, though he’s very aware of them. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 17, 2022
In its most moving and offhandedly momentous moments, The Inspection becomes a chronicle of not just persecution and survival but also solidarity, in which the all-American brotherhood in which Ellis finds himself actually can function as advertised. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 9, 2022
Bratton’s depth of feeling elevates the material, suggesting that, for the filmmaker, there’s something intensely cathartic and therapeutic in this retelling. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonSep 9, 2022
Bratton, though, is not solely interested in a litany of struggle. He fills The Inspection with style, with spiky humor and alluring edge. It’s a promising feature debut. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 9, 2022
Pope gives a career-igniting performance. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 22, 2022
Only when The Inspection is complete does it truly reveal itself: a powerful, poignant, and complicated look at what people will do for acceptance. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrNov 30, 2022
An intensely personal and truthful, if not entirely fact-based, account of joining the Marines as a gay Black man in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era. It is the type of film — brave, raw and poetic — that will rightly put Bratton on the map as someone to watch, not to mention the standout performances of Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union. Read full review
75
Washington PostMark JenkinsNov 22, 2022
Two things distinguish writer-director Elegance Bratton’s lyrical debut feature from its predecessors: a clanking, droning, energizing score by experimental rock band Animal Collective and a central character — based on Bratton himself — who’s Black and gay. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 22, 2022
It’s impossible not to think of military training camp staples such as “Full Metal Jacket” and “An Officer and a Gentlemen” when experiencing writer-director Elegance Bratton’s semi-autobiographical The Inspection. While Bratton’s film isn’t in the same league as those classics, it’s a strong and memorable if predictable boot-camp journey that features many of the same elements of the first half of “Jacket” and the entirety of “Gentleman” — most notably in that all three films feature an alpha male drill instructor who will either defeat his recruits and send them home, or turn them into lean mean fighting machines. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 21, 2022
The Inspection is best appreciated as a showcase for Woodbine and Union, each taking her or his best big screen dramatic role in years and bringing it home in scene after scene. Read full review
75
ColliderChase HutchinsonNov 18, 2022
The Inspection proves to be a rich work of personal introspection crossed with a wiser slice of life portrait of an era that can only come when looking back. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfNov 18, 2022
Union's sour presence suggests the tougher film that could have been, bookending the movie with a double dose of viciousness; theirs is a relationship that won't be solved by a crisp uniform. If this is Bratton's calling card — and it should be — her scenes are the ones that suggest the real promise to come. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzNov 18, 2022
Some experiences are so profound (and/or scarring) that they elude explication. The Inspection is about that sort of experience, which translates far beyond boot camp and resonates through our lives, until the final trumpet fades. Read full review
75
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaSep 10, 2022
Pope's performance is so raw, so honest, that we're with him every step of the way. Read full review
75
The Film StageEthan VestbySep 9, 2022
Positioned as a work of autobiography from first-time director Elegance Bratton, The Inspection is a flawed, if highly compelling promise of a new talented dramatist in American cinema. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsNov 21, 2022
This is not a tale of a young man who can “pass” and, knowing that it may matter to his survival, toughens up, puts on a masculine drag. It’s a movie intent on showing us that this is all drag — it’s all put-on, all available to the play of identity. Read full review
67
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerOct 24, 2022
For better and worse, The Inspection seems like the movie Bratton had to make, a story so personal that some of its biggest emotional confrontations start to resemble a therapeutic exercise. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonNov 21, 2022
Bratton’s unique perspective is so much more interesting when you hear him talk about The Inspection that you often wonder where it is when you’re watching it. Read full review
60
Little White LiesSaskia Lloyd GaigerFeb 17, 2023
The Inspection is a powerful yet unsettlingly inconclusive account of an important, haunting period in a man’s past. Read full review
60
EmpireJames DyerFeb 14, 2023
A by-the-numbers boot camp drama elevated by resonant emotional truth and seen through the revealing lens of all-too-lived experience. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 9, 2022
It’s in the film’s queerest moments that things feel most inventive, narratively and visually, as Bratton steps most firmly outside of the hemmed-in army drama formula and finds ways to make his film sit and thrive in the Venn diagram between military machismo and homoeroticism. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonNov 22, 2022
Bratton has made a film that isn’t necessarily anti-military — he is no doubt proud of his service — but pro-humanity. In a sense, Ellis is going through his own personal boot camp. Perhaps the film should have been called “The Introspection.” Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesNov 21, 2022
To be successful in confronting, understanding and dismantling the institutional homophobia that continues to be a cancer in American life requires depth, perspective, and a sense of inquiry—three qualities in short supply in The Inspection. Read full review
50
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiSep 26, 2022
The Inspection has a few poignant moments, but its lack of introspection, well-developed character dynamics, and exploration of the systems in place keep the film from reaching its full potential. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonSep 12, 2022
The film is too invested in treacly cinematic optimism for its character dynamics to feel sketched out beyond their basic narrative function. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRobert DanielsSep 9, 2022
The Inspection isn’t a bad movie. Rather it’s a disappointing slog because the arduous journey it sets up should have offered greater returns. Read full review
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