He鈥檚 61 now, well-off and trim. He has many accomplishments as an actor but there's this one thing he finds hard to shake: Back in 1985, he got called something.
During the Reagan administration, rising star was lumped into an amorphous group of young actors who were changing Hollywood. They were called
Now, it's never nice to be called a 鈥渂rat鈥� or to lose your individuality to a pack, but McCarthy and the members of this collective 鈥� Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Rob Lowe and maybe Anthony Michael Hall 鈥� seemed to implode.
鈥淭hat changed my life,鈥� says McCarthy, who starred in 鈥淧retty in Pink鈥� and After being branded, the so-called bratty actors scattered, not wanting to work together again. The stigma, McCarthy says, was 鈥渄efining.鈥� He has PTSD, he suggests.
Now almost 40 years later, McCarthy hit the road to star in and direct trying to get a handle on the label and how some of the pack handled it.
First stop is a who acknowledges that the Brat Pack term had some early benefits but was ultimately 鈥渕ore damage than good.鈥�
鈥淚t created the perception that we were lightweights,鈥� he adds.
Then there are visits to Sheedy, Moore, Lowe, Tim Hutton and Lea Thompson 鈥� all who commiserate with McCarthy. (Ringwald and Nelson are notable absences, perhaps still .) These visits have the feeling of therapy sessions.
鈥淢arty Scorsese, Steven Spielberg is not going to call up somebody who鈥檚 in the Brat Pack,鈥� McCarthy tells Estevez, who admits to pulling out of a movie at the prospect of teaming up with McCarthy.
(Not to be rude, but the Brat Pack-adjacent did a movie with Scorsese, 鈥淭he Color of Money,鈥� the hottest thing in Hollywood in the '90s and Robert Downey Jr., also Pack-adjacent,
As he pays one former colleague after another a visit at their well-appointed homes, the heat of injustice has dissipated. Moore鈥檚 estate with its tasteful wood panels, shaded pool, massive glass walls and Japanese-inspired minimalism doesn鈥檛 exactly scream, 鈥淭hat label from 1985 really destroyed my life.鈥�
The doc is scored well, with songs by The Cure, Lou Reed and Steve Winwood, 鈥淔orever Young鈥� by Alphaville and a haunting 鈥淒on鈥檛 You (Forget About Me)鈥� cover by Zoe Fox and the Rocket Clocks.
But McCarthy's visual style is too fragmented, happy to capture his scrambling camera and sound operators in the frame and changing up his shots from guerilla-style jerky iPhone images to tasteful, polished portraits. His use of old clips is excellent, incorporating not just scenes from movies but TV interview outtakes, too.
A more interesting thing happens in McCarthy's road movie by the halfway mark 鈥� it becomes a sort of celebration of Brat Pack movies. Cultural observer talks about the generational transition in Hollywood, while Susannah Gora, who wrote 鈥淵ou Couldn鈥檛 Ignore Me If You Tried鈥� about the Brat Pack鈥檚 impact, notes that teens in the Midwest were singing British New Wave synth-pop tunes thanks to McCarthy.
Pop culture critic zeroes in on the lack of diversity in Brat Pack movies, 鈥淟ess Than Zero鈥� writer notes the influence the movies had on his work, and screenwriter Michael Oates Palmer comments that Brat Pack movies were the first to take 鈥測oung people's lives seriously.鈥�
These are the building blocks of a better movie 鈥� Gladwell cutely mentions that he used parts of Cryer's character as his identity in high school 鈥� but McCarthy isn't willing to stray.
He comes across as a very thoughtful guy, able to quote Tennessee Williams and Eugene O鈥橬eill, reserved, shy and wry, so often deep in his feelings. But this bratty label he cannot shake. He also wrote about it in It is his Moby Dick.
That analogy works when he finally harpoons his white whale 鈥� David Blum, who at 29 in 1985, hoping to snag some attention in the journalism world, coined the phrase 鈥淏rat Pack鈥� 鈥� a flip play on the Rat Pack 鈥� for New York magazine.
McCarthy sits down with Blum at the conclusion of the film 鈥� the aggrieved actor and the journalist meeting for the first time four decades after being dragged into the '80s cultural lexicon. This is the 鈥淵ou can't handle the truth鈥� moment.
And yet McCarthy is so nice that while he makes his case well, he sort of also understands Blum's position and kind of likes him, too. Will Blum finally admit that the label is scathing? 鈥淚 mean, I guess in retrospect, yes. At the time, no. I was proud of the creation of the phrase,鈥� says the writer. They end their meeting with a hug.
Like a Brat Pack movie.
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鈥淏rats,鈥� a Hulu release premiering Thursday, is not rated but has smoking, love scenes and swearing. Running time: 93 minutes. Two stars out of four.
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Mark Kennedy is at
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
