It’s taken Andrew McCarthy nearly 40 years, his memoir “Brat: An ’80s Story” (2021) and his new documentary Brats (2023) for the actor-turned-director to come to terms with the term Brat Pack.
The label was coined in the New York cover story “Hollywood’s Brat Pack: They’re Rob, Emilio, Sean, Tom, Judd and the rest — the young movie stars you can’t quite keep straight.” By adding a B to Rat Pack, journalist David Blum equated a group of emerging actors in the 1980s to established cool cats Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, who performed and partied together in the 1960s.
This twist on the original moniker marked a shift in the entertainment industry during the first half of the decade. The Rat Pack’s hip numeric hits — Ocean’s 11 (1960), Sergeants 3 (1962), Four for Texas (1963) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) — had been eclipsed at the box office by a surge of youth-oriented pics released in 1980 (The Blue Lagoon, Friday the 13th, Ordinary People), 1982 (Porky’s), 1983 (The Outsiders, Risky Business, War Games), and 1984 (Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Footloose). Similar teen films — Taps (1981), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Valley Girl (1983) — also turned a profit.
Yet Blum dismissed certain stars of these flicks because, unlike the self-made men of the Rat Pack, these “brats” were nepo babies who hadn’t paid their dues. But since Matthew Broderick, Nicolas Cage, Emilio Estevez, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn (later Robert Downey Jr., Chris Penn, Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland) were playing young adults, it wouldn’t make sense for them to delay their entree into show business by breaking to earn theater degrees.
Although unrelated to a famous family, Tom Cruise is highlighted in the writeup which briefly refers to Matt Dillon and Matthew Modine, while keeping its primary focus on Estevez. According to the piece, Emilio is the president and treasurer of the bar-hopping Brat Pack. Yet these positions are as fictional as the members of said Pack are nebulous. Were John Cusack and Jon Cryer Brat Packers? Not unless they were hanging out with Estevez, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Demi Moore and Ally Sheedy.
At the time of its conception, the Brat Pack didn’t just work together, they played together. As such, it was assumed the actors in St. Elmo’s Fire were Brats since the film was released concurrently with the article’s publication in June of 1985. The Breakfast Club (1985) piggybacked its way into the Pack thanks to overlapping cast members Estevez, Nelson and Sheedy who portrayed both high schoolers and college grads within the same year.
While Generation X lays claim to the brand, the core Brats actually belong to Generation Jones since Nelson and Mare Winningham were born in 1959; Lowe in 1964; and the bulk of the Pack (Estevez, McCarthy, Moore and Sheedy, plus tertiary members Broderick and Cruise) in 1962. Yet with the addition of Gen-Xers Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald (both born in 1968), negative connotations of the Brat Pack’s manufactured decadence lessened, especially with the inclusion of John Hughes’s more wholesome films.
In addition to The Breakfast Club, Hughes directed and/or wrote Sixteen Candles (1984), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), plus Pretty in Pink (1986) featuring McCarthy as a preppy rich kid. The role is similar to the one he had in Class (1983) with Lowe, Brat Pack adjacent James Spader, and onscreen love interest Jacqueline Bisset. But instead of thanking his lucky stars for getting these parts, McCarthy resents being associated with the Pack.
According to the documentary, he presumes the Brat brand ruined his chances to work with Steven Spielberg even though the director cast Spader in Lincoln (2012) and Cruise in Minority Report (2002) and War of the Worlds (2005). As mentioned, Tom is listed as a Brat Packer in Blum’s article. Ironically, Andrew is not. Nevertheless, McCarthy seems to assert Pack status for both self-pity and cultural relevance.
In 1986, Moore co-starred with Lowe in About Last Night… and Estevez in Wisdom. Since then, she became an A-lister with the mega-hits Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), Disclosure (1994) and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003). Demi also appeared in Bobby (2006) written and directed by Estevez before agreeing to be interviewed for Brats.
It’s clear the actress doesn’t harbor ill will regarding the Brat Pack label. In fact, McCarthy’s on-camera conversations with Sheedy and Lea Thompson reveal their appreciation for the brand; Estevez and Hutton, not-so much. Lowe, who’s enjoyed post-Pack success on the big and small screens, provides some much-needed perspective. He also adds a little levity to the otherwise dour documentary.
Brats includes film clips and archival interviews from the 1980s as well as recent commentary from questionable experts who add generic observations on the Pack’s pop cultural impact. In passing, McCarthy rightly ponders whether Friends (1994-2004) would exist without St. Elmo’s Fire. But the theory is never explored beyond a brief mention.
Although Brats offers plenty of wacky camera angles, it lacks substantive content, historical context, and an overall lightheartedness. Readers will probably learn more about the Brat Pack from this review since most of the doc’s 92 minutes are devoted to McCarthy kvetching about the old New York cover story.
When Cassatt, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley were exhibiting their paintings in Paris, art critic Louis Leroy dubbed the group “Impressionists” in 1874. Like the Brat Pack moniker, this label was initially bestowed in a condescending manner (Degas loathed it). But once the artists embraced the brand, they found strength as a group and turned their individual efforts into a revered and long-lasting movement. Today, most people probably don’t know Guillaumin’s first (or last) name, but they are familiar with the Impressionists.
The same applies to actor McCarthy and writer Blum. When the two men finally meet at the end of Brats, they realize the only thing they’ll be remembered for is being associated with the Brat Pack title. It’s a lesson Nelson and Ringwald, who declined to participate in the documentary, could learn.
Sure, the Pack’s coming-of-age films are flawed, but these vehicles helped launch many careers while entertaining masses of fans. Only gratitude should come with that. If this documentary proves anything it’s that Brat Packers trying to distance themselves from a brand that put them on the map are … brats.
Brats, About Last Night…, Blue City, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fresh Horses, St. Elmo’s Fire, Taps, and Weird Science can be streamed on Hulu.
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