Photo: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection/Getty Images
In Andrew McCarthy’s new documentary, Brats, the actor assembles a thorough retrospective on the “Brat Pack” title that he and his fellow young actors were begrudgingly given in the mid-’80s. Coined by New York Magazine’s David Blum as a play on “Rat Pack,” the term became a reluctant moniker for a troupe of young movie stars who were changing the cultural landscape with youth-focused films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and St. Elmo’s Fire. Over 30 years later, McCarthy and many of his former co-stars now reckon with that label, as well as the cultural phenomenon it encapsulated, in Brats.
As the documentary investigates that unique moment in culture, one thing remains uncertain: Could such a phenomenon happen today? Malcolm Gladwell argues that it couldn’t because today’s youth culture is far too fractured. That lack of monoculture would make it harder for such a clearly defined group to emerge, let alone have such a strong impact on both the culture and industry. On the other hand, Rob Lowe suggests that the Brat Pack paved the way for other youth-oriented cultural touchstones like Glee and the CW. “You see that moment recycle every generation with different people, with different names, and different places, but it’s the same story,” he says. “There always will be people who will go through that moment every generation.”
Perhaps both can be true, where a more fractured culture means there isn’t one all-powerful Brat Pack but, rather, different packs with varying impacts. With the tenets of the original Brat Pack label in mind — and outlined in depth here — let’s consider what our modern-day equivalents might be.
Core Members: Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Beanie Feldstein, Molly Gordon, Kaitlyn Dever, Ayo Edebiri.
This batch of theater kids, led by Ben Platt because his name is the one that rhymes, is perhaps that closest we currently have to the original Brat Pack because of their intersecting filmographies. For this group, their Breakfast Club is Theater Camp — which features Gordon, Platt, Galvin, and Edebiri. Gordon and Edebiri also co-star in The Bear. Dever meanwhile starred in Dear Evan Hansen with Platt, and Booksmart with Feldstein, Galvin, and Gordon. Feldstein and Platt will eventually star in Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Along when we’re all long dead, and that’s to say nothing of Alice by Heart and its many workshops, for which we’d need an additional 1,000 words. It’s a web reminiscent of the Brat Pack, but many of Platt Pack’s connections actually run much deeper, featuring lifelong friendships, engagements, and unrequited childhood crushes.
Core Members: Your favorite social-media creators.
The biggest difference between the cultural landscape of the 1980s and today is ALF is off the air social media. While the Brat Pack’s draw was that audiences wanted to be a part of that friend group, today’s itch is often scratched by social-media creators, many of whom once embraced now-defunct Brat Pack–esque labels themselves (Vlog Squad, Hype House, Team 10, etc.). Now we see these influencers such as Tana Mongeau, Alix Earle, Jack Shane, Alex Cooper, and more teaming up for podcasts (and more important the clips of said podcasts that go viral on TikTok) and subsequently guesting on each other’s shows in an infinite loop. That constant cross-pollination, along with the rapidly evolving landscape, makes it a fool’s errand to try to define just one specific group.
Core Members: Charli XCX, Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, Addison Rae, Troye Sivan, and more.
Hulu must have known it would be a Brat summer thanks to Charli XCX. Are the dueling drops synergy or an SEO nightmare? Who’s to say! But fittingly, Charli has a brat pack of her own — many of whom were on display in her “It”-girl-filled music video for “360.” Rachel Sennott (who’s Platt Pack adjacent), Julia Fox, Chloë Sevigny, Gabbriette, Chloe Cherry, Blizzy McGuire, Quen Blackwell, and more all made appearances. And who could forget her frequent collaborator and Queen of Pop Addison Rae as well as her tour co-headliner Troye Sivan?
Core Members: The Co-Hosts of The View
Just as the members of the Brat Pack are forever tied together by a cultural entity bigger than themselves, as are the many co-hosts of The View. Whereas The Breakfast Club had a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal — The View has its own regular archetypes. There’s the journalist, the comedian, the lawyer, the former child star, and the conservative nepo baby, just to name a few.
Core Members: Paul Mescal, Nicola Coughlan, Barry Keoghan, Andrew Scott, Kerry Condon, Ayo Edebiri.
Photo: Photo by Carlo Paloni/BAFTA via Getty Images.
The music industry in the 1960s experienced the British Invasion, and now Hollywood is in the midst of an “Irish Invasion.” There’s been an influx of breakout Irish stars recently, but unlike the breakout of the Brat Pack via ensemble films, this recent trend has largely been by way of individual efforts. But once they gain enough pull, then an all-Irish ensemble film called St. Patrick’s Fire will surely be on the way.
Core Members: Lexi Featherston, cigarette, open window.
No one’s fun anymore! Whatever happened to fun? God, I’m so bored I could die.
Core Members: Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray, Iris Apatow, Madison Hu, Joe Locke, Louis Partridge.
Olivia Rodrigo’s friend group, unlike the Brat Pack, wasn’t assembled by chance via a casting department. But this circle ultimately reflects the perception of the Brat Pack — a cool, young, sprawling friend group — rather than the reality of it. As we learned in the documentary, the Brat Pack didn’t really hang out all that much outside work — save for a night at Sammy Davis Jr.’s house that marked the one crossover between the Rat and Brat Packs.
In conclusion — if any of these names stick and offend, I will happily participate in a documentary 30 years from now where I apologize to Noah Galvin on camera.
