As a kid, I grew up in the 80s for the most part. I was born in the 70s and lived my first six years in that decade, but the 80s was the real first decade where I started growing into who I am today. Part of that was watching movies featuring young actors at the time. Seeing some of my favorite actors in some of my favorite films of the time was quite a feeling for me as a young person. The Brat Pack was part of that time in my life. Brat is a documentary film written/directed by one of the members of the Brat Pack, Andrew McCarthy. Eric Stolts, Lauren Shuler Donner,

McCarthy had a love-hate relationship with the moniker “The Brat Pack”. Coined by journalist David Blim. Based on an interview with Emilio Estevez. This journalist lumped in this group of young actors at the time together because they were in a few movies with each other. Class, St. Elmo’s Fire, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles were a few of these films. They were just a few that I loved as a kid. They represented me and my age range at that time in my life. 

During this time it was perceived by the world that these guys and gals were not worthy of their success. The name as a whole was considered an insulting term by most of the members of the so-called group. Some embraced it and others didn’t. They didn’t like the label. They were said to be friends on and off screen, but from what they have said they didn’t hang out off-screen. Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Rob Lowe, and Emilio Estevez all give their perspective on the name they were labeled with and their lives in Hollywood at that time.

McCarthy uses a lot of familiar filmmaking techniques in making this documentary.  The most frequent thing he does is use talking heads because he’s interviewing people who were involved in the group of young people back then. As well as adjacent actors,  directors, and journalists who have a take on the group and time. He also uses archival footage from red carpets, television interviews, and other footage of the members of the group. The best thing he does is add scenes from the films these young actors were in that are relevant to the film he’s making now.

What I liked about the documentary was when McCarthy was driving around talking about trying to reach out to the members of the group. An opening series of shots of him making phone calls was a fun art because it kicked off this film in a good way. He gets to be himself and talk about his perspective rather than having narration and talking over archival footage. It’s in a way a road film or travel film mixed into a documentary. That was a fun element of the documentary.  

Where this film gets intelligent is where the narrative of these young adults gets psychoanalyzed by pop culture journalists and the world as a whole. Youth films of the time were becoming bigger and bigger. Were these guys and girls a bunch of spoiled young people?  Why Do these people deserve this lifestyle? Is hard-partying and making movies the lifestyle we all wish we could have? Sure. It’s not fair these guys and gals had it. So some people were jealous about this. Being famous isn’t all it’s cracked up to be though.

Brats is a fun documentary that analyzes a group of actors who were tied together by a phrase that wasn’t always a good thing for all of them. The actors who were in this group all had a different perspective on this moniker they were stuck with for the rest of their lives. McCarthy does as good a job as he possibly could do considering the topic of the film. This group of people were thrust into something they had no control over just because they were in a few movies together. It’s a lot to grasp. Thirty years later in the interviews they all seemed to accept what this ultimately was for them and their careers. As a fan of these people and a young man who grew up with these films, I had a nostalgic aspect to watching this film. It brought back a lot of good memories for me as a young man at this time in my life.

Brats is curently streaming on Hulu

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen