‘Brats’: Brat Pack Name Still Stings After All These Years

‘Brats’ is basically a therapy session for Andrew, the Brat Pack’s most tormented member, but it’s nice to catch up with Rob, Demi, Emilio, Ally, and the gang.
‘Brats’: Brat Pack Name Still Stings After All These Years
(L–R) Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, and Demi Moore make up most of the Brat Pack, in "Brats." Neon/Hulu
Mark Jackson
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1h 32m | Documentary | June 13, 2024

In the 1960s, a Hollywood social group consisting of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, were dubbed “The Rat Pack.” They were the epitome of 1960s cool.

In the 1980s, a group of young, successful Hollywood actors who co-starred in many movies together, consisting of Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and Judd Nelson were dubbed “The Brat Pack.” This was compliments of a disingenuous, jealous young journalist out to make a name for himself. He used guile to secure their trust, then wrote a hit piece.

A copy of the New York magazine edition containing the dreaded article wherein the term "Brat Pack" was coined, in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
A copy of the New York magazine edition containing the dreaded article wherein the term "Brat Pack" was coined, in "Brats." Neon/Hulu

The moniker stuck immediately, to the immense annoyance of all involved. It affected some more deeply than others, and more or less traumatized Andrew McCarthy for 30 years. He wrote a book about it and has now made a documentary about it. The man feels his career could have had so much more potential had it not been for this predatory potshot.

One feels McCarthy’s pain. But at this late date, it feels like a bit of a small “ouch.” It’s a colossal first-world problem. But because the Brat Pack was an American cultural watershed, with actors and actresses most Americans feel they knew like family, it’s nice to follow McCarthy on his interview rounds and catch up with the Brat Pack in their current lives.

Word Play

Literature that fueled the fire and spread the term "Brat Pack," featuring photo of Brat Pack contemporary Tom Cruise, in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
Literature that fueled the fire and spread the term "Brat Pack," featuring photo of Brat Pack contemporary Tom Cruise, in "Brats." Neon/Hulu

McCarthy, figuratively wringing his hands over the vast injustice the loathed nickname bestowed upon him and his colleagues, doesn’t seem to have taken into account America’s unabated relish for wordplay. In America, if you make a hugely successful movie called “The Terminator,” and then successfully run for governor—you’re immediately going to get called “The Governator.”

Rapper Eminem rapped: “Though I’m not the first king of controversy, I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley. To do black music so selfishly, and use it to get myself wealthy.” Now, both we and Eminem himself enjoy calling him “Rap Elvis.”

And so obviously, if there’s an actor collective that does a lot of movies together, where some of them (like McCarthy himself) play entitled characters, and if they’re all riding that crest of early, extreme fame that can easily infuse any individual with a mega-dose of entitlement on the level of smoking crack, then it’s just a matter of time before some journalist or comedian coins the term “Brat Pack.”

Especially if that journalist personally observes the euphoria and hubris of such stars out drinking on the town, possibly griping about not having had a sufficiently large trailer on their last movie. It’s even more salt in the wound if that ordinary-looking journalist has to watch those young, incandescently hot stars enjoying by-now ubiquitous Beatlemania-type young female feeding-frenzy. It’s not really surprising. In fact, it’s pretty much to be expected.

A billboard ad for quintessential Brat Pack movie "The Breakfast Club," in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
A billboard ad for quintessential Brat Pack movie "The Breakfast Club," in "Brats." Neon/Hulu

What Goes On

The “Brats” felt that in one fell swoop, the label erased all their hard work spent on honing their art and craft. Now people perceived them as a bunch of self-involved lightweights, who had managed to be in the right place at the right time and got lucky.

McCarthy, deeply invested in seeing whether his former co-stars from 1980s teen classics like “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “Pretty in Pink” were as negatively affected as he was, drives around America with a little camera crew doing interviews. He hasn’t seen most of them for 30 years.

Andrew McCarthy interviews Lea Thompson, in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
Andrew McCarthy interviews Lea Thompson, in "Brats." Neon/Hulu
He also interviews a couple of “Brat Pack-adjacent” colleagues, like Lea Thompson from “Back to the Future” (“adjacent” is her humorous categorization). Also Brat Pack-adjacent colleague Timothy Hutton, whom McCarthy dubs the “godfather of the Brat Pack.”

Hutton’s Robert Redford-directed movie, “Ordinary People,” heralded the 1980s wave of movies exclusively about young people. For the first time in movie history, a trend and zeitgeist took teens and all their little adolescent problems very seriously. Many of these films are Brat Pack movies.

That was a big deal, since we all know teen problems are the most monumental. To teens. It was a brilliant Hollywood marketing move, leading to massive amounts of teen moolah spent in mall movie-plexes all over ‘Murica.

Emilio, Demi, and Rob

Emilio Estevez (L) with his father Martin Sheen in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
Emilio Estevez (L) with his father Martin Sheen in "Brats." Neon/Hulu
First interviewee up is Emilio Estevez, who appears to attempt to muster sympathy for McCarthy’s anguish. However, Estevez was basically grandfathered into Hollywood showbiz by movie star dad, Martin Sheen. Not to mention having as a brother Charlie Sheen, who, in the 1980s, was a Brat Pack-adjacent about as hugely famous as a movie star can possibly get. Which means that Emilio had more driving savvy to help keep control of the steering wheel of his career.

At times, “Brats” has the feel of a colleague-facilitated therapy session for McCarthy. He is able to blend their various outlooks and get some much-needed perspective.

Andrew McCarthy (L) interviews Emilio Estevez in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
Andrew McCarthy (L) interviews Emilio Estevez in "Brats." Neon/Hulu

Everything in tabloid newspapers in grocery store checkouts across the nation is untrue click-bait-y blather about the outrageously out-of-control and unhappy lives of movie and rock stars. If one took that stuff seriously, one would expect McCarthy to discover Demi Moore in a homeless camp, strung out on various drugs.

But there she is by her pool, looking healthy and happy, and dispensing comforting words of wisdom to McCarthy. Her interview is clearly therapeutic for him. I could have spent at least 15 minutes more, listening to her talk about the things she’s learned in life.

Demi Moore in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
Demi Moore in "Brats." Neon/Hulu

Rob Lowe’s interview was easily the most fun of all. What he had going for him, in the same way Emilio was a to the manner born showbiz, er, brat, is that Lowe was a classic, stunningly good-looking, young West Coast actor, with self-confidence and schmooze-ability that are off the charts. This is a guy who was never going to be unsuccessful. In the same way comedian Chris Rock recently said of singer Rhianna, “Rhianna is so fine, if she didn’t sing her life would be exactly the same"—ditto for Rob Lowe.

Billy Hicks (Rob Lowe, L) and Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy), in "St. Elmo's Fire." (Colombia Pictures)
Billy Hicks (Rob Lowe, L) and Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy), in "St. Elmo's Fire." Colombia Pictures
Lowe, like Estevez, tries to empathize with McCarthy’s pain, but provides a crystal-clear viewpoint that cuts straight through all McCarthy’s emotional disquietude like a hot knife through butter. In response to McCarthy insisting the Brat Pack wasn’t as big as the Beatles and couldn’t have sold out the Washington Coliseum (I mean, just think about whether the ability to even make a statement that outrageous, really warrants 30 years of remorse), Lowe responds with a telling confidence: Yes indeed, in 1985, the Brat Pack most certainly could have packed the Washington Coliseum with 8,000 screaming fans. And you know it’s true. And you can see that McCarthy knows it’s true, too, but he just needs to hear Rob say it one more time.
Rob Lowe in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
Rob Lowe in "Brats." Neon/Hulu

Malcolm Gladwell

Andrew McCarthy went so far as to recruit renowned author Malcom Gladwell of “The Tipping Point” and “Outliers” fame to weigh in on the cultural relevance of the the Brat Pack. Mr. Gladwell doesn’t disappoint; he says it was a new wave of youth culture that everyone at the time could identify with, and that it was a one-shot-deal. It could never happen again, because youth culture now is like everything else in America and the world, in the social media age—totally atomized and fractured.
He also says it caught on because of the word play on “The Rat Pack,” and it had humor because the Brat Pack was the polar opposite of the Rat Pack: The Brats were young and anxious and dying to be accepted, and the Rats were too cool to care about any of that. 
(L–R) Andrew McCarthy, John Hughes, and Jon Cryer on the set of "Pretty in Pink," (Paramount Pictures) in "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
(L–R) Andrew McCarthy, John Hughes, and Jon Cryer on the set of "Pretty in Pink," (Paramount Pictures) in "Brats." Neon/Hulu

Gladwell validates the cultural impact for McCarthy by saying that as a teen he identified with Ducky in “Pretty in Pink,” (played by Brat Pack-adjacent actor Jon Cryer). When Gladwell looked back many years later after having forgotten that aspect of his formative years, he was surprised to see similarities between himself and Ducky. But then hilariously remembered that he'd consciously patterned himself after Ducky in the first place. Movies are powerful.

McCarthy acknowledges that the Brat Pack actors became avatars for the young peoples’ aspirations. The fact of the matter is, the Brat Pack, along with director John Hughes, made some of America’s most beloved movies. That’s a huge achievement. We’ll probably never see the likes of the Brat Pack again.

Hopefully McCarthy has gotten some much-needed closure, although the arguably most prominent Brat Packer of all, Molly Ringwald (and Judd Nelson too), refused to be interviewed.

“Brats” is a reminder to live fully in the moment. Like Brat Pack-adjacent actor Matthew Broderick’s character Ferris Bueller says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

It was a great reminder to mind one’s speech. It’s a perfect example of how one ill-intended, careless word or phrase can cause someone else 30 years of grief, and the karma that can ricochet back from that. If you believe in such things.

Promotional poster for "Brats." (Neon/Hulu)
Promotional poster for "Brats." Neon/Hulu
‘Brats’ Director: Andrew McCarthy Starring: Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Timothy Hutton, Lea Thompson, Jon Cryer, John Hughes Documentary Running Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes Release Date: June 13, 2024 Rating: 3 stars out of 5
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Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Film Critic
Mark Jackson is the chief film critic for The Epoch Times. In addition to the world’s number-one storytelling vehicle—film, he enjoys martial arts, weightlifting, motorcycles, vision questing, rock-climbing, qigong, oil painting, and human rights activism. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Williams College, followed by a classical theater training, and has 20 years’ experience as a New York professional actor, working in theater, commercials, and television daytime dramas. He narrated The Epoch Times audiobook “How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World,” which is available on iTunes and Audible. Jackson is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.