The old saying ‘If you remember the 60s, you weren’t even there.’ seems to have more detachment, given that we are more than six decades on from a period of history that still seems to attract film-makers in droves.
The recent James Mangold Dylan biopic A COMPLETE UNKNOWN reminded one of how nostalgic we can be about a romanticised perspective of a time that none of us living today as both adults and kids probably weren’t old enough or born to experience.
If another saying states that a picture paints a thousand words, what giveth the power of a mere two – ‘Brat Pack‘
For a certain acting and cinematic demographic, the term was both a blessing and a curse – a blessing for a generation of filmgoers who felt that the sub-genre of youth storytelling was the nearest thing to empathy for an eternally renewable commodity, a curse to the very people who helped shaped the memories and reflections that films like THE BREAKFAST CLUB and PRETTY IN PINK amongst others provided to googly-eyed adolescents.
Andrew McCarthy is perfectly placed to unlock the door for fans and converts alike with his documentary BRATS, in which he goes on a spiritual odyssey to get to the bottom of what it was about that period in the 1980s when the world was at the feet of a group of actors that seemed poised to pick the world up and slam dunk themselves into the basket of eternal fame and fortune.
As Kevin in the late Joel Schumacher‘s ST. ELMO’S FIRE (1985), McCarthy personified a cynicism and grounded words-to-the-wise (his response about the sexual revolution to Emilio Estevez‘s Kirby is one of the all time great lines in the film, whilst Rob Lowe and others provided the eye candy.
There is much openness in this film as McCarthy looks up his old co-stars and goes deeper, such as when he reveals to Ally Sheedy that he had a crush on her during the making of FIRE and Sheedy was one of the shining stars of the period following her success in WARGAMES (1983) as Jennifer Mack in one of the best techno-thrillers of the decade (Still is a shining star today in my opinion and deserves a comeback).
As McCarthy catches up with the likes of Lowe, Estevez, Howard Deutch (director of PRETTY IN PINK), Deutch’s real-life wife Lea Thompson, Timothy Hutton and Jon Cryer, it is clear that time has mellowed their own intense cynicism about what the term ‘Brat Pack’ means, which also leads him to a catch up with David ‘please call me ‘Dave’ Blum, the original journalist who coined the phrase and somebody who felt some naivety about how the article (and term) would be interpreted.
McCarthy and Estevez reflect on a near-miss of a project in YOUNG MEN WITH UNLIMITED CAPITAL which was never made but which from what I read in magazines in the early 1990s was going to tell the story of the two men who put together the 1969 Woodstock festival. There is still some smoke, but overall the participants seem to be more interested and open about how golden the opportunity was.
Demi Moore reflects on the support she got when ST. ELMO’S FIRE was being made and there are others who contextualise the legacy of the films that have been made. All in all, a must-see for fans and those curious about the films that defined youth culture and the MTV generation.
BRATS is on Hulu and Disney+ (in the UK) now.