After having witnessed so many hagiographic clip reels masquerading as documentaries, I took it for granted that Hulu’s “Brats” would be just another love letter to the young stars of the ‘80s, the ones who impacted pop culture in the middle of the decade in the maelstrom we know as the 21st century. Happy to say this isn’t it. It is a more ambitious project that seeks to understand pop culture, the profession of acting and careers around it, and how even a single nickname can shape one’s life.
The words “Brat Pack” came to be somewhat of a certificate of an anti-aging surgery instead, such was the allure of the select few who made it in this ‘exclusive’ club. Andrew McCarthy – one of its stars is now at a stage of life where many of us wonder how they got here.
“Brats” makes the argument that Brat Pack was itself a product of a changing film industry that was moving away from making films for adults featuring actors such as Jack Nicholson, to a strong focus on youth with films starring Tommy Cruise in “Risky Business” & Kevin Bacon in “Footloose.” The members of the group that would eventually be called The Brat Pack, rode this wave.
If we apply the criterion that claims a movie can be labeled as belonging to the Brat Pack if it features at least two of its core members, then the earliest film is perhaps the 1983 called: The Outsiders. However, Class, which was also launched the same year, matches better what the audience remembers about this group before John Hughes came in with his Sixteen Candles and, most importantly, The Breakfast Club.
Almost in the middle of the article “Brats”, the question is raised that who is a member of the Brat Pack – Jon Cryer, for example, did not feel too much appetite for that word in the first place, and Lea Thompson is more outside than inside the circle – yet the most un-debated people are McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.
Things went awry in 1985 when journalist David Blum began writing a profile on Emilio Estevez for New York Magazine seeing how his subject along with his colleagues had more appeal thus coining out the term Brat Pack which has interesting origins which Blum goes into detail in a wonderful interview towards the end of the film. As in, I was glad that McCarthy spoke to a person who in a sense transformed the life of McCarthy in a most unimaginable way.
The video illustrates the tension that sometimes exists between journalists and the stars they cover. McCarthy really gets to the crux of the matter as to what go it Brats is, stating that the term ‘Brat’ should not be used since it suggests that it was a term introduced to him. The slur became something of a stop sign for these performers, some of whom took years to shake it off, and some who could be said never did.
Main focus of McCarthy’s film is on him speaking with some of the former Brat Pack members, including Estevez, Lowe, Sheedy, and Moore, some of whom he hasn’t seen for many years. Most of the American fans of those actors (and the time when they were at the top) may find one of the startling aspects of “Brats” that the supposed to have been a band forever in a detention room, a quite passionate set of fans, was in fact disbanded by the label.
Estevez recounted that a project with him and McCarthy died as soon as it was announced because all the actors in this group deserted the label in order to make some money. Moore appears to have come to the healthiest point in regard to it all as he puts it in the very poignant way regarding how much we tend to wallow in things that are beyond our control and that forward progress is only possible when we cease such activity.
McCarthy cleverly avoids allowing “Brats” to be a simple nostalgia piece, even soliciting observations from famous figures like Malcolm Gladwell and the brave critic Kate Erbland. In a way, what he has done in and with “Brats” is staying conversation with a tag. Why do we need to witness pop culture artifacts to articulate what we adore? What is caused to the artists within the constraints of our creative restrictions?
There are times when it seems as if McCarthy is doing too much, especially when the movie transforms into some kind of fond tribute to John Hughes for an Atlantic – or too much which still seems hard to call. Yet, I will be more than happy for a documentary about a pop culture event with more than enough problems. Because the overwhelming majority do not have anything to say that we already do not adore and know.
If I remember rightly, I’m not that old to have missed the Brat Pack’s rise to popularity, they were still honing their craft at the time! A fact that I find refreshing is that Lowe is articulate enough to suggest that the Brat Pack was a propellant in a complete culture change towards stories of youth, making “Brats” very interesting as these actors and actresses who had such appeal were labeled in a most derogatory manner. “Brats” is how that derogatory term is now being redefined and re-evaluated. And it has been done in good time.
Watch free movies like on Fmovies
