Brat Pack Documentary by Andrew McCarthy

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'BRATS' Review: Brat Pack Documentary by Andrew McCarthy <link rel="stylesheet" id="all-css-4" href="https://tvline.com/_static/??-eJydk0FywyAMRS9Ugt2ZNKtOz4JBcdSA8CDhxD19IXE7cVZ2VpiR/uPzLfRlUEjWZwesLbN2yKI7H+1ZeeySSZO2MYRIu4C0Kx1v+llivWFGq+QEAXjRZyMJkOjB5x6J9RCsevw2jlWf0Okuo3caycF1tTgSSMrFbjkehGcGy+RhNePooxGkXo3oIP6R6q3+K9+XwZsJ0raLZYnBCDiVwN9Wj3TmpdV6zDa7pU7F1XUGGLfFE0eLxis+mQSqM2mGHNNN59ZzBO15UlwSq5SHzJaV1UCJwz1/VuP7PfytniiOpvbNZtgQCv6sD/ZJX7dFk14GyFj+93o11Df2wjyUAaiRzZMPkof6pKr8K3y2h/bw0ezbpvkFBth4cg==" type="text/css" media="all"/>

BRATS Documentary Review: Andrew McCarthy Is Still St. Elmo's Fire d Up About 'Brat Pack' Label"/> <meta class="swiftype" name="body" data-type="text" content="BRATS, the new documentary film from ABC News Studio (premiering Thursday on Hulu), is a must-watch for the Gen X crowd that knows its John Benders from its Duckie Dales.

Back in the spring of 1985, New York Magazine writer David Blum set out to pen a profile of Emilio Estevez. But when the buzz for St. Elmo’s Fire caught, well, fire, that feature blew up into a cover story that infamously christened Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore et al “Hollywood’s Brat Pack."

Andrew McCarthy, as director of BRATS, sets out to reconcile his own past struggle with the "Brat Pack" label by interviewing Estevez, Moore, Lowe, Ally Sheedy and other rising young stars of that time. (“It’s been a blessing more than a curse in my life,” McCarthy shared at the TCA winter press tour, echoing his BRATS narrative. “We were branded as ‘partying, wanting to have a good time and get famous,'" and as a result the young actors lost control of the narrative of their careers.)

But if you're looking for a trip down Brat Pack memory lane rife with fun anecdotes, once-hot goss and wall-to-wall clips from St. Elmo's Fire, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and the like, this is not that documentary.

McCarthy's individual reunions with his fellow Brat Packers — some of whom he hadn't seen in 30 years -- are across-the-board genial and warm. His sit-down with Ally Sheedy was a highlight for me, and Rob Lowe is always gonna Rob Lowe.

When McCarthy drops in on Demi Moore, it becomes crystal clear (if there was any doubt) that BRATS served as a bit of needed therapy for its maker. Moore's insightfulness fuels one of the film's more complex conversations, as she, from a place of love, nudges her onetime co-star to reconsider his toxic, decades-long relationship with the bratty label.

In addition to participating bona fide Brat Pack members -- McCarthy posits that the "official" line-up is him, Estevez, Lowe, Moore, Sheedy, Judd Nelson and Molly Ringwald -- Jon Cryer and Timothy Hutton also are paid a visit, while other talking heads include authors of related tomes and filmmaker John Hughes' go-to casting director. (Nelson decided not to participate in the docu, reportedly telling McCarthy, “The Brat Pack didn’t exist," and neither did Ringwald, but both appear in archival interviews.)

The breezy docu builds to McCarthy confronting New York Magazine vet Blum himself about siring the moniker that would prompt many Brat Pack members to instantly distance themselves from the others in subsequent films. Blum's recollection of coining the term is candid, non-apologetic, and in its own weird way helps bring McCarthy some closure.

As a filmmaker, McCarthy takes a few swings that don't land. BRATS has a clunky start due to his decision to chronicle his first exploratory cell phone calls to Estevez & Co., but since (recording consent laws!) we never hear the other end of those convos, the moments are inert. Similarly, he tries to film his arrival at each Brat Pack member's home, but the camerawork repeatedly fails to properly capture the long-awaited hellos and hugs.

As an interviewer, McCarthy left me wishing, hard, that he had asked his former co-stars one question: What film project did they think (or hope) broke them out of their Brat Pack mold? (Like, does Moore go with Ghost? A Few Good Men? Striptease?) It could have offered an insightful look into who each actor thought they could be, beyond the Brat Pack.

Where BRATS greatly succeeds is as a reminder of, hot damn!, what a moviegoing time we Gen Xers lived in back then! The Brat Pack and their peers were prolific during the 1980s, thanks in part to, yes, John Hughes, but also the trend of moviemaking at the time. A steady stream of low- and mid-budget films about high school and friends and college and relationships? With only the occasional blockbuster sci-fi film in sight? We lived, people. So while not quite the trip down memory lane described above, BRATS does winningly speak to a very special and specific time in pop culture, one that is, alas, long behind us.