listen up! a brat pack soundtrack starter pack
I compiled a song from choice emblematic films of the time, starring any Brat Pack member. Allow this to be the soundtrack of this blog post. Seriously, turn it up!
For the past two weeks, Andrew McCarthy has been making the ABC daytime media rounds promoting Brats, the new documentary digging into what it meant to be a member of the Brat Pack. He has been unavoidable, which, okay by me because I still find him totally dishy.
Brats sought to answer questions such as who were the members? What were the movies? How did the moniker (these days we would call it a “brand”) of this young group of actors impact their careers?
I am able to identify many of the exterior facade establishing shots both in the Georgetown neighborhood and at the University of Maryland campus, both of which I frequented in my twenties and in the case of the former, beyond, in St. Elmo’s Fire. That is to say that I am an eighties junkie, thus making this documentary appointment television. I could barely hold myself back from jumping at immediately watching Brats before my morning coffee.
the members
Qualification of the Brat Pack is unclear, even per the writer of the infamous New York Magazine article, David Blum, who branded them as such.
As a self appointed expert on 1980s popular culture, I say that inclusions as a primary ensemble member of either St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club, a Brat Pack member makes. Emilio, Judd, and Ally are surefire members, the inner concentric circle if you will. Secondary members who appeared in one of the movies include Molly, Mare, Anthony Michael, Andrew, Demi, and Rob. Associate members are James (Spader), Jon (Cryer), Matt (Broderick), John (Cusack), Lea (Thompson), Sean (Penn), Robert (Downey Jr.), and Tom (Cruise), amongst others.
best movies
As mentioned above, St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club are the quintessential Brat Pack movies, qualifying the primary members. In the second tier, I consider Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink to be Brat Pack films; these two as well as The Breakfast Club are the Molly Ringwald icon collection.
Periphery movies include Say Anything, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Less Than Zero, and Risky Business. Only Less Than Zero included a Brat Pack cast member, looking at you McCarthy, but there is something just as iconic when it comes to these coming-of-age films.
best books
Brats was inspired by Brat: An 80s Story, Andrew McCarthy’s memoir. I read it several years ago, immediately upon the book’s release. Not to be critical but if I didn’t know better, McCarthy seems to be someone holding onto his glory days, akin to a high school athlete who now sells insurance in his hometown.
Despite the potential arrested development, I recall enjoying his memoir. I came to the conclusion that if it brings me more primary source material on the topic, that is just fine by me.
I also enjoyed reading You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried. Worth the re-read…as a matter of fact, it has been a moment since I revisited it. Perhaps it is time to crack it open again.
More primary source material includes Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography by Rob Lowe and Brat Pack America. I advise to deprioritize these for the ones above.
Other great reading material of the time includes anything by Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis (the former namechecked in Blum’s original article and both interviewed in Brats), and Tama Janowitz. Did you know these three were known as the Literary Brats Pack? The two men were also known as the Toxic Twins, a term of which Blum might have also used to describe Emilio and Rob… 🤷🏻♀️
