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Summary
- McCarthy’s sincere curiosity fuels a raw exploration of the impact of The Brat Pack label.
- Celebrities revealing their human side provides endearing moments for viewers.
- Insightful details on ’80s pop culture and the impact of Hollywood fame from the doc are fascinating.
Was The Brat Pack title a blessing or a curse for the actors who fell under that label? Maybe a little of both. Director Andrew McCarthy explores the idea with determination and a refreshing display of vulnerability in Brats. The documentary, which just dropped on Hulu, follows McCarthy as he embarks on reuniting with and interviewing fellow Brat Packers Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, and others to ask questions that have been swirling around his psyche since the height of his fame in the 1980s. The biggest one: How were the actors affected by being labeled The Brat Pack?
McCarthy’s sincerity and genuine curiosity fuel this compelling doc, which is stripped of the typical Hollywood production sheen featured in most talking-head documentaries. Instead, audiences are offered a raw and very real exploration of one man hoping to answer some soul-burning questions from the comrades he came of age with. In this case, the acting posse from films like St. Elmo’s Fire, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and others.
Several industry insiders come along for the ride, offering insights about fame, ’80s pop culture, and how actors like McCarthy, Lowe, Jon Cryer, Lea Thompson, Judd Nelson, and others were part of a cultural tsunami that paved the way for shows like Friends. As revealing as it is engaging, the doc also serves as a stellar nostalgia trip that’s bound to win people over.
4/5
Release Date June 13, 2024
Runtime 1h 32m
Pros
- Andrew McCarthy is a great person to lead the doc as a result of his introspective approach
- It’s endearing to see these celebrities showing a human side
- Great details given about a fascinating period of pop culture
Cons
- It’s a shame certain members of the group like Molly Ringwald didn’t want to take part
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Behind-the-Scene Details About the Pack
Back in 1985, The Breakfast Club hit theaters in February, making stars out of Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Judd Nelson. Flash forward to the summer of that year and St. Elmo’s Fire is released with Sheedy, Estevez, Nelson, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, and Andrew McCarthy. Enter: David Blum, the New York Magazine writer whose interview with Emilio Estevez around the time of the film’s release had a very bold headline that read: “Hollywood’s Brat Pack.”
Everybody’s life changed after that, and here, McCarthy intends to track the impact of having that title thrown upon him and his costars. The director meets with Emilio Estevez first, and in a revealing admission, McCarthy says that none of the actors ever really talked to each other about how The Brat Pack label affected them. Soul-searching as he is, McCarthy seems to have been the one more impacted by the title than the others.
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Estevez chats up always wanting to be a filmmaker, but when The Brat Pack term arrived, suddenly his career path altered — he’d have to be the actor everybody saw through the lens of the new title. Later, in a chat with Ally Sheedy, the actors discuss past crushes, McCarthy’s aloofness during St. Elmo’s Fire, and more. Jon Cryer and Lea Thompson arrive with candid insights of their own, sharing how they weren’t “officially” in The Brat Pack — that “privilege” befell the stars of St. Elmo’s Fire.
In a fitting move, McCarthy takes us back to where it all began in vintage interviews with some of the actors — Nelson, Lowe, and Molly Ringwald among them. Ringwald, Nelson, and Hall opted not to appear in the doc, but that didn’t sway McCarthy, who wanted an honest exploration of how Hollywood and pop culture often shapeshifts an actor. While interviewing Cryer, the Pretty in Pink and Extended Family star inquired about Ringwald, to which McCarthy said, “She said she’d think about it but that she’d probably like to keep looking forward.” Other big reveals will delight fans of the films and the actors, or anybody curious about pop culture history.
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Demi Moore Had a Sober Coach for St. Elmo’s Fire
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To be sure, one of the most refreshing interviews McCarthy showcases is his chat with Demi Moore in her Malibu home. Moore leaped off St. Elmo’s Fire and became even more famous for her roles in About Last Night, Indecent Proposal, A Few Good Men, and The Seventh Sign. As McCarthy ponders why he felt wounded by the Brat Pack term, Moore, ever the wise sage, practically life coaches the actor-director, bringing him off his own self-imposed ledge. It’s here you wish you could just spend more time experiencing Moore, who clearly knows what she’s talking about.
It wasn’t always that way. Another big reveal finds Moore saying, “They paid to have a sober companion with me 24/7, during the whole shooting, [of St. Elmo’s Fire],” with director Joel Schumacher sticking, “his neck out for me… They could have easily just found someone else because it’s not like I had any box-office draw… we were all just beginning. I didn’t have anything to really warrant him sticking by me.”
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But Schumacher did. Other great moments arrive when Rob Lowe — confident and self-assured — chats up how he eventually decided to ride the Brat Pack wave and have it work in his favor. Ultimately, he opted not to be bothered by the label, and it’s here that the documentary turns a bit deeper as audiences get to see how each of these actors evolved over time. The result showcases these folks as real people, not the famous figures many came to revere.
One of the doc’s best moments is when McCarthy meets with writer David Blum, asking him if he ever regretted what he wrote so long ago. The response and, in turn, McCarthy’s, is revealing. From beginning to end, Brats holds your interest. It’s wonderfully bold, curiously endearing, and downright enthralling as it tracks both one actor’s personal evolution to move beyond the past, and the past that so defined an era, significantly altering the shape of Hollywood and filmmaking in the years to come. Brats is streaming on Hulu. Watch the trailer below.
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