Review: 'The Inspection' is a strikingly personal portrait of the military under 'don't ask, don't tell'

At the beginning of "The Inspection," Elegance Bratton's stirringly intimate drama about a gay Black man in the U.S. military, one personal hell is exchanged for another. The man's name is Ellis (he's played by Jeremy Pope), though as a Marine recruit, he's referred to most often by his surname, French — a single syllable that, as barked repeatedly by his superiors and fellow recruits, begins to sound like a taunt. It's 2005, and with "don't ask, don't tell" still very much in effect, Ellis' boot camp experience becomes that much more nightmarish a crucible. It also opens a window into a hyper-regimented world that, as one drill sergeant observes in a rare