Four decades after the fact, actor and filmmaker Andrew McCarthy is revisiting his roots in a new documentary, Brats. The trailer for the Hulu film focuses on the cultural impact of the “Brat Pack.” A spin on the Rat Pack of the ‘60s, the Brat Pack were young actors that typically performed together in a number of films about teen and young adult experiences. Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Demi Moore, and McCarthy were just a few of the actors who spearheaded the teen movie craze. But while these movies remain cultural touchstones for fans, McCarthy lets the audience know in the trailer that their experience was wildly different. “If you were coming of age in the 1980s, the Brat Pack was near the center of your cultural awareness,” McCarthy explains. “But for those of us experiencing it from the inside, the Brat Pack was something very different.”

The trouble all began when New York Magazine published a certain magazine article in 1985. The article was entitled, “Hollywood’s Brat Pack” and changed the lives of the actors forever. While it may have seemed an innocuous or even a clever turn of phrase, the actors felt damaged by the label. They were forever known as these teen actors, pigeonholed into juvenile roles. Moore notes in the documentary that they resented being called “brats.” Rob Lowe and the Indecent Proposal actor were some of several performers who found success after the experience, but many still harbor pain from the tumultuous time.

Andrew McCarthy Puts the Pieces Together in the ‘Brats’ Trailer

McCarthy seems to be reclaiming the term by naming the documentary, Brats, but it is clear that many of the people involved have traumatic memories of the time. McCarthy gets to work and contacts everyone in the group to reconnect with them. The trailer does not show every one of the members on screen, but Moore, Lowe, and Estevez make several telling remarks.

“What a f***ing disaster,” Lowe puts simply about the release of the article. Estevez, notably has the most significant hesitance about appearing in projects. He states that the only reason he agreed to do the documentary was because it was McCarthy who asked him. Others were not as wounded by the label. Leah Thompson, who appears in several films of the time, lovingly calls herself “Brat Pack-adjacent.”

These revelations, such as Jon Cryer denying he was a part of the Brat Pack, will all be revealed when Brats airs on Hulu on June 13.

via Collider