Summary
- Andrew McCarthy reflects on the Brat Pack era with his new documentary
Brats
, and tells us how films like St. Elmo’s Fire shaped perceptions of friendship on screen, resulting in the hit TV series,
Friends. - The documentary
Brats
explores the influence of ’80s films and the cultural impact of the Brat Pack with new interviews and insights. - McCarthy tells us that his role in
St. Elmo’s Fire
was a pivotal moment that changed his professional life.
Andrew McCarthy went from being a beloved ’80s star (from Brat Pack movies like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire to other touchstones of the decade, like Less Than Zero and Weekend at Bernie’s) to the talented television director behind dozens of episodes from series like Gossip Girl, Orange Is the New Black, The Blacklist New Amsterdam, and Condor. He’s bridging those two career paths in his new documentary, Brats, an exploration of the Brat Pack era that he directs and stars in. The Hulu film had its world premiere yesterday, June 7, at the Tribeca Film Festival.
St. Elmo’s Fire
4/5
A group of recent college graduates embark on a series of misadventures in the real world. There’s Kirby, a waiter who wants to be a lawyer; Kevin, a moody writer who yearns for the wild Jules; Alec, whose political aspirations alienate his girlfriend, Leslie; and Wendy, a quiet girl in love with Billy, who juggles roles as husband, dad and drunk. Together they grapple with adulthood.
- Release Date
- June 28, 1985
- Runtime
- 1h 48m
Brats finds McCarthy chatting with former members of the Brat Pack and many other people (such as writer David Blum, who coined the moniker) and exploring the influence and meaning of those movies from the 1980s. The greatest of these may be St. Elmo’s Fire, directed and co-written by Joel Schumacher. A great many people identified with the story of college friends coming into their own as they first embark on life. Of the film’s allure, McCarthy told MovieWeb:
“That’s what all of us want — that feeling of connection. So, then TV shows like
Friend
s
can come around.
Friends
is exactly
St. Elmo’s Fire
, you know, put in a coffee shop as opposed to a bar, because it’s an eight o’clock sitcom and not a 10 p.m. It’s exactly that.
Does that [kind of show] exist without
St. Elmo’s Fire
? Probably eventually, but we certainly knocked down the trees to make that possible.”
Related
These Are the Best Brat Pack Movies, Ranked
The group of young actors known as The Brat Pack made some of the most era-defining movies of the mid-1980s, and these are their greatest films.
The Brat Pack: ‘They Put Friendship at the Center of a Movie’
In our interview, Andrew McCarthy continued to look back on the Brat Pack era and speculate on how it became so popular, and why:
“The conditions were right and perfect that that could happen. One of the things those movies did —
St. Elmo’s Fire
and
The Breakfast Club
— was
they put friendship… at the center of a movie and treated it the same way that romantic love had always been treated in movies before
. Suddenly, it’s about friends. And young people just went, ‘Yeah, I want that.’”
McCarthy wanted that, too. He knew that St. Elmo’s Fire captured a culturally specific kind of lightning in a bottle. “Well, I knew, for me personally, that I was the right guy in the right part at the right time,” McCarthy said of being in St. Elmo’s Fire. “Yeah, I knew that if I didn’t mess this up, I wasn’t [going to be] surprised when that changed my world.” He added:
“
St. Elmo’s Fire
— I was perfectly suited for that part… That rotten before it’s ripe cynicism, covering the wall of vulnerability and fear. I just inhabited that guy utterly. I wasn’t surprised when that happened. You’re surprised once the train leaves the station, and you don’t know where it’s going… so that changed my life professionally.”
Now that Brats had its Tribeca premiere, the documentary will begin streaming on Hulu beginning June 13. You can watch the trailer below:
