Dir. Elegance Bratton
2022, USA, 95 min
In Elegance Bratton’s deeply moving film inspired by his own story, a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.
With The Inspection, Bratton has continued working with the humanist lens through which he shaped his captivating 2019 documentary Pier Kids.
– Sarah-Tai Black, Globe and Mail
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.
– Alison Willmore, Vulture
