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‘Brats’ documentary: cast, release date and how to stream online

In ‘Brats’, actor-turned-director Andrew McCarthy speaks to fellow former members of the 1980s group of actors that came to be known as the ‘Brat Pack’.

ABC

A new documentary, which is due out this week, takes a look back at the ‘Brat Pack’ - a group of Hollywood actors who starred alongside each other in a series of coming-of-age movies during the 1980s.

Who was in the ‘Brat Pack’?

The exact line-up of the ‘Brat Pack’, whose name was coined by the writer David Blum in a 1985 article in New York magazine, is a matter of debate. However, there appears to be widespread agreement that the likes of Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy were all core members.

In their late teens or early-to-mid 20s at the time, they each featured in one or both of the two 1985 films that are considered ‘Brat Pack’ classics: The Breakfast Club and St Elmo’s Fire.

Brats: synopsis

McCarthy, who appeared in St Elmo’s Fire, directs and fronts Brats, a 90-minute documentary in which he revisits his ‘Brat Pack’ past. According to the film’s co-producers, ABC News Studio, “McCarthy reunites with his fellow Brat Packers - friends, colleagues and former foes, including Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Jon Cryer, Lea Thompson and Timothy Hutton, many of whom he had not seen for over 30 years - to answer the question: What did it mean to be part of the Brat Pack?”

For the first time, McCarthy also sits down with Blum - whose moniker the actor-turned-director says he found “horrible” at the time. Now, though, the 61-year-old says he can look upon it as a “blessing.”

“I turned 60 last year, and you start to look at your life a little differently,” McCarthy told a Q&A after Brats’ world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, per Deadline. “I looked back at this seminal moment in my past, that I’d been dragging around for so many years, and it seemed frozen in the past. And I wanted to bring it up into my present. And by examining it, I could sort of honor it. And if I honored it, it started to turn into a blessing. And then I was fascinated by the journey.”

When is Brats released?

Brats is scheduled to be released in the United States on Thursday 13 June 2024, on the streaming service Hulu.

Brats: watch the trailer

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How much does a Hulu subscription cost?

You can get an ad-free subscription to Hulu for $17.99 a month, or a basic plan with ads for $7.99 a month/$79.99 a year. You can also sign up to Hulu as part of a range of bundles that come with one or both of Disney+ and ESPN+, while another option is one of Hulu’s ‘+ Live TV’ plans, which start at $76.99 a month.

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