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The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off Thursday night and with it came the arrival of the festival’s first major Oscar player with The Inspection. Coming this November from A24, the film is a powerful true story of homophobia experienced at home and within the military. And as the roars from the crowd when she took her curtain call indicate, Gabrielle Union just landed at the center of the Best Supporting Actress conversation.
The film follows Ellis (played by Tony nominee Jeremy Pope), a young gay Black man who enters the U.S. Marines as the only alternative to being unhoused. Once there, he faces homophobic torment from both his fellow recruits and superiors, the worst of which comes from his training officer played by Bokeem Woodbine. Ellis’ journey towards reconciliation and affirmed identity is an emotional rollercoaster. Union stars as Ellis’ stoic, verbally bruising mother Inez, who had originally kicked him out of the house for being gay.
The story is an autobiographical one for maverick director Elegance Bratton (who also examined unhoused queer youth in his debut documentary Pier Kids, which you can and should watch now on the Criterion Channel). His own history with his mother provides the film’s emotional backbone.