From Demi Moore to Rob Lowe, Here Are 5 Defining Brat Pack Movies

The 1980s: when the hair was crimped, the pants were parachute and the movie stars were as fresh-faced as could be. The decade produced a surprising volume of hit coming-of-age movies, featuring actors often in their late teens and early twenties. Some of these charismatic stars would come to be known as the Brat Pack, a term coined by the writer David Blum in a 1985 New York magazine article about the youth movie phenomenon.

At the time, the stars who were considered a part of the Brat Pack were offended by the term, one that seemed dismissive of their work and painted them as careless and unprofessional. The actor Andrew McCarthy had been grappling for decades with how the term changed the trajectory of his career, and he decided to make a documentary about it. In “Brats,” which is screening at the Tribeca Festival and streaming on Hulu beginning June 13, McCarthy reconnects with some of his ’80s co-stars (including Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and Demi Moore) to discuss how being in the Brat Pack affected them, for better or worse.

Despite the negative connotations of the term, the Brat Pack movies truly did come to define a generation, and the documentary shines a light on what these movies meant, and still do mean, to young people (even as the culture has changed). While a dozen or so movies qualify as Brat Pack selections, below is a look at five of the most defining films for the moniker, and why they had such an impact.

‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985)

Detention has never been as fascinating as it is in this John Hughes classic, about five archetypal students forced to endure a Saturday together in the school library: the brain (Anthony Michael Hall), the athlete (Estevez), the basket case (Sheedy), the princess (Molly Ringwald) and the criminal (Judd Nelson). They trade jabs, laugh, cry and share personal stories that allow them to see one another as individuals rather than as the convenient labels placed on them.