‘Brats’: See Trailer for Andrew McCarthy’s Documentary About the Brat Pack
Brats is a new documentary by actor Andrew McCarthy about the group of young movie stars that ruled in the 1980s infamously referred to as the “Brat Pack.”
The premise of Brats is laid out well in the trailer below. It finds McCarthy, who starred in Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire, seeking out the members of the Brat Pack today and talking with them about that unique time in their lives.
McCarthy is able to secure sit-downs with many Brat Pack members and actors in the group’s orbit, including Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Jon Cryer, Lea Thompson and Timothy Hutton. Noticeably absent from the trailer as interview subject of McCarthy’s are Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson.
The term “Brat Pack” came from a 1985 cover story by David Blum for New York Magazine. In the documentary, McCarthy actually gets Blum to sit for an interview.
In a statement, McCarthy said about the documentary, “The Brat Pack has cast a long shadow over my life and career. After all these years, I was curious to see how it had affected my fellow Brat Pack members. What I found was surprising — and liberating.”
Interestingly, McCarthy told Salon that he hadn’t seen some of his fellow Brat Packers in decades. He said he hadn’t seen Lowe in 30 years and Estevez in 35 years. McCarthy noted, ” … I went to each of them and said, ‘Hey, will you talk to me about this? Because we were members of a club that we didn’t ask to join that no one else was. We’re the only ones that know what it was like.'”
Brats premieres on Hulu on June 13.
Is There a Definitive List of Brat Pack Movies?
A simple Google search of “Brat Pack Movies” will yield some confusing results, as there doesn’t seem to be a definitive list or criteria on what makes certain movies “Brat Pack Movies.”
Some movies are obviously more affiliated with the Brat Pack than others. Those movies include The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink.
However, some movies are seemingly also categorized as being affiliated with the Brat Pack but don’t quite fit. IMDb and Britannica both consider The Outsiders, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Lost Boys and Young Guns as Brat Pack movies, which is certainly up for debate.
Each had even more left-field choices. IMDb’s list also included Weekend at Bernie’s, Less Than Zero, WarGames and Weird Science. Meanwhile, Britannica had some truly baffling choices, including Taps, Footloose and Lucas.
Perhaps after the release of Brats, we’ll get closer to determining a true definitive list.
