Brats documentary explores what was and what could be (Tribeca)

Tribeca Film Festival - Documentary

Rob Lowe & Andrew McCarthy. Courtesy of BRATS

Growing up, my parents were strict about what movies my sisters and I were allowed to watch, so the only John Hughes film I had seen for a long time was a television edit of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I wasn’t familiar with the Brat Pack until later when I was able to watch films like “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Sixteen Candles.” While these weren’t formative films during my youth, I do have an affinity for these actors of my generation who were part of a movement toward making and marketing films for a young audience. So one of my most anticipated films of Tribeca, which is now streaming on Hulu, has been “Brats” from actor and filmmaker Andrew McCarthy.

McCarthy starts the film by explaining how much Brat Pack nomenclature impacted his ability to be seen and see himself as a serious actor. We then see him questioning whether others who came up with that moniker had similar experiences, and he cold-calls many of the likely suspects. The rest of the film consists of interviews with actors like Lea Thompson, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore, who offer touching, thoughtful conversations with McCarthy.

Rob Lowe & Andrew McCarthy. Courtesy of BRATS

McCarthy has done a good bit of directing work in the past decade, and that work is apparent in the style of this film. It is obviously something in his life that affected him deeply, and his care about the subject matter and the people attached to that is made evident through the filming. 

One of the most powerful moments in the documentary is when McCarthy sits down to talk to David Blum, the author of the New York Magazine article that dubbed the young actors as the Brat Pack. It is by far the most raw that we see McCarthy in the film, explaining just how much receiving that label put him on the path of self-doubt right as his career was blossoming. Seeing these two men decades later, sharing what that time meant to them is worth watching the whole thing.

Emilio Estevez & Andrew McCarthy. Courtesy of BRATS

But that’s not the only good part. The conversations with other members of the Brat Pack, or at least those who are Brat Pack adjacent, are interesting in their own right. All of them dealt with the blowback in their own ways, and it is interesting to hear them processing that decades later. There’s no question that not having Molly Ringwald or Judd Nelson as part of the conversation leaves it feeling somewhat unfinished, but even so, it is a fun walk down memory lane.

Your twenties are a time of sorting out who you are and the beginning of thinking about a legacy. For these actors, their legacy was set to some degree by a writer who spent a night with a bunch of kids who forgot he was a journalist and treated him like a friend. But this film is also a great reminder that, ultimately, we are the ones who decide who we are. Even if it takes forty years to do it.

This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on June 15, 2024.