You gotta feel for actor Andrew McCarthy. Dubbed a member of the early ’80s Hollywood “Brat Pack” alongside his movie co-stars Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe and Molly Ringwald, et al, the label chafes to this day.

Hence his documentary Brats, a nostalgic exercise in late middle-age reunion that sees McCarthy criss-cross the USA to reconnect with his acting peers from genre classics such as Pretty in Pink and St Elmo’s Fire – most of whom he has not seen for decades.

He wants to find out whether his experience of being labelled so early in life has affected others in the same way it has him.

Brats. Image supplied

In a 90-minute doco that reveals rather more about its creator than was perhaps intended, McCarthy is confronted by peers for whom the Brat Pack label seems of scant concern. McCarthy believes it nixed his chance to become the actor he wanted to be (and looking at his filmography, which includes both Weekend at Bernie’s movies, perhaps he has a point). But as far as Rob Lowe and Demi Moore are concerned, it was a publicity blip, something that...