BRATS

In the eighties a group of young actors in America appeared in film after film. The films described school and college years and found large audiences. Then a magazine article came out; the writer described these actors as a group and gave them a name. The name stuck. Their careers changed after it: they had difficulty getting serious parts and some went without work for a long time. In the documentary one of that group, now in his sixties, calls the others one by one, meets them and asks what that name did to them. Andrew McCarthy directs and speaks in the film. The documentary dates from 2024. The matter at its centre is the label; a description a journalist came up with directly affected the working lives of a group of people. Among those interviewed are actors of the period; some refused to take part and the film says so. The writer of the article speaks as well and defends what he wrote. The method is personal; McCarthy describes his own grievance directly and keeps no distance. Its limit is scope; the narrative proceeds largely through one person's view and enters the film history of the period only lightly. It was released on a streaming platform. Who it is for: anyone curious about eighties American cinema and portraits of actors. Who it is not for: the narrative is personal, the structure loose, and the subject narrow.