Brats

Despite this being 1000% in my wheelhouse, I was brushing it aside as another one of these cookie-cutter documentaries that streamers have been pumping out in the name of "content." The kind of "documentary" that uses Wikipedia as their script to tell viewers the most basic, common knowledge about whatever subject they're covering.

Luckily I looked a little closer and realized this was a project both written and directed by one of the "Brats" referenced in the title, Andrew McCarthy. That's what I needed to make this interesting, a personal take. From what I've gathered from some of the reviews I've seen, people seem to be rather cynical towards the whole thing which I've found puzzling, "This is just McCarthy and the other privileged brats still working through the pain of a hurtful newspaper headline decades ago." OK! Sounds good to me - I'm here for it! Who of those who lived through that time, no matter what phase of adolescence they were living, would not want to hear their experience and perspective of living through such a crazy, intense spotlight, at that age, and all because of the world of cinema?! It's .... nuts.

My favorite aspect of this was not just McCarthy taking the lead on this, but that it wasn't just about The Brat Pack themselves. In fact, even the gossipy side of their story was not delved into too seriously, it was more about the entirety of the story, which includes more than the namesake. We get to see and hear from many of the Brat Pack-adjacent crowd. That includes the likes of Howard Deutch, who directed quite a few of the "John Hughes' films," including Pretty in Pink. It includes a visit with the man who penned the phrase "Brat Pack" for his June 10, 1985 New Yorker piece, published a few months after the release of Hughes' seminal film, The Breakfast Club. We even hear from Bret Easton Ellis (author of Less Than Zero, American Psycho, and his newest, a stylish, 80s-set high school slasher, The Shards) from his West Hollywood home, an author whose works are still deeply inspired by the Los Angeles-era 1980s.

There's so much great stuff here, and while it's far from perfect (the lack of Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson is especially noteable), I learned a lot, I appreciated very much their mature reflection on the time, and I loved by the end, while avoiding any kind of sappiness, it somehow all came together with a fond, warm sentimentality for a time that feels like yesterday for many, but is amazingly, somehow, decades in the past. Drop the cynicism, and enjoy. I don't you'll be disappointed.