cult film freak: andrew mccarthy

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Written by James M. Tate / 8/30/2026 / No comments / ally sheedy , andie macdowell , andrew mccarthy , brat pack , eighties , emilio estevez , joel schumaker , judd nelson , mare winningham , melodrama , romance

JUDD NELSON IN THE BRAT PACK MELODRAMA 'ST. ELMO'S FIRE'

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 group of college graduates, a few months after leaving the cozy nest of
 dorm life, wind up on their own in the big city yet still have each 
other to depend on<span style="font-family: inherit;">... </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus
 in 1985, when the so-called “Brat Pack” was in full form, ST. 
ELMO’S FIRE was the navel-gazing follow-up to THE BREAKFAST CLUB just as
 CLUB has graduated past SIXTEEN CANDLES (only this has nothing to do 
with John Hughes, amazingly enough)...</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span></span></span></p></div>

ally sheedy, andie macdowell, andrew mccarthy, brat pack, eighties, emilio estevez, joel schumaker, judd nelson, mare winningham, melodrama, romance

JUDD NELSON IN THE BRAT PACK MELODRAMA 'ST. ELMO'S FIRE'

Year: 1985 Rating; ***1/2 A group of college graduates, a few months after leaving the cozy nest of dorm life, wind up on their own in the...

ROB LOWE W/ ANDREW MCCARTHY & JACQUELINE BISSET IN 'CLASS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwf3KEGHZwiRf1hlS08RqPeR5JuNtq2Qc4qduC5J9psRy4SocNtqH2tscSU9ltbK3Wo9N8pSHfEFqZpwf0HQl5AwvWOo9LBJpyRrdQDv5vs6oWX1cYBTyuitmc5cglhDR207quZjYUI7LZ5YJgzEFxoSoQi-TCRVRVzLYJ1VaIxRKjMhKKnIHD3LtttZL0/s2246/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-12%20at%209.51.07%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1116" data-original-width="2246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwf3KEGHZwiRf1hlS08RqPeR5JuNtq2Qc4qduC5J9psRy4SocNtqH2tscSU9ltbK3Wo9N8pSHfEFqZpwf0HQl5AwvWOo9LBJpyRrdQDv5vs6oWX1cYBTyuitmc5cglhDR207quZjYUI7LZ5YJgzEFxoSoQi-TCRVRVzLYJ1VaIxRKjMhKKnIHD3LtttZL0/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-12%20at%209.51.07%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Opening credit for CLASS from 1983 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>While CLASS stars future <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/brat%20pack">Brat Packers</a> Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy before <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2014/05/rob-lowe-films.html">ST. ELMO'S FIRE</a> made them both 11th hour qualifiers after SIXTEEN CANDLES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB (then cemented with ABOUT LAST NIGHT and PRETTY IN PINK), it relies on the two previous decades while epitomizing the eighties Sex Comedy template including a hapless virgin, a partying rich kid and a sexy older woman straight out of THE GRADUATE...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Leading to the inevitable (and at the time heavily promoted) May/December romance between McCarthy and Jacqueline Bissit is a sort of devil-may-care prep school ANIMAL HOUSE with students smoking and drinking, and where Lowe's cocky practical joker character recalls Tim Matheson's HOUSE chief Otter Stratton... </p><p><span></span></p>

alan ruck, andrew mccarthy, brat pack, eighties, jacqueline bisset, john cusack, rob lowe, romantic comedy, sex comedy, stuart margolin

ROB LOWE W/ ANDREW MCCARTHY & JACQUELINE BISSET IN 'CLASS'

Opening credit for CLASS from 1983 Rating: *** While CLASS stars future Brat Packers Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy before ST. ELMO'S FIR...

PROANTAGONIST: THE ECLECTIC NEO NOIR OF MATT DILLON

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Matt Dillon in the Noir remake A KISS BEFORE DYING</u></td></tr>
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<u>THE RUMBLING OUTSIDER</u>: Matt Dillon as the kind of face that seems perfectly suited for Black & White, even in color...
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Rumble Fish Blues</u></td></tr>
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For example, when he looks into the hospital mirror during the riskiest of many risky heists in DRUGSTORE COWBOY, his slick black hair contrasts dramatically to pale white skin and then, with the turn of his head, the blood red along his forehead accents the fevered heat of the moment... The sudden contrast is reminiscent of the actual Chinese fighter fish i.e. RUMBLE FISH, the only colored objects (red) in an otherwise completely B&W film, steals the picture in Coppola's first of the two S.E. Hinton collaborations beginning with THE OUTSIDERS as the James Dean/Marlon Brando hybrid: A rogue rebel completely idolized by the two young central characters played by C. Thomas Howell and Ralph Macchio... But to everyone beyond the gang, being a outright criminal as well as a charmer, if anyone of the cast of future teen heartthrobs (including Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze) makes this otherwise teen gang melodrama, it's his character, Dallas Winston, who, unlike his ambitious RUMBLE FISH little brother character, Rusty James, doesn't want to be a leader <i>or</i> a follower...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>RITCHIE: "A kid who tells on another kid, is a dead kid."</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lighting up The Outsiders</u></td></tr>
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And, behind the scenes according to the Coppola commentary track of THE OUTSIDERS; while it took days, even weeks, for some of the other actors to be cast, Dillon walked in and got the job right away (both RUMBLE FISH and OUTSIDERS will be reviewed on their own territory with an upcoming "Coppola Does Hinton, Twice"). The former OVER THE EDGE "post child actor" was fourteen in his first role in 1979 where his bike riding, chain smoking Ritchie White is the Dallas Winston of the suburban outskirts, again leading the underdogs (whether he's present or not) to victory. But it was MY BODYGUARD the following year that proved Dillon could really act, and it took the second Coppola/Hinton flick to underline that fact...<br>

andrew mccarthy, bruce dern, charles bukowski, diane lane, eighties, francis ford coppola, harry northup, matt dillon, neo noir, nineties, remake, retrospective, seventies, suspense, tens, thriller, zeroes

PROANTAGONIST: THE ECLECTIC NEO NOIR OF MATT DILLON

Matt Dillon in the Noir remake A KISS BEFORE DYING THE RUMBLING OUTSIDER : Matt Dillon as the kind of face that seems perfectly suited...

PRETTY IN PINK BY JOHN HUGHES

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy & Jon Cryer headline PRETTY IN PINK written by John Hughes</u></td></tr>
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Like GREMINS or BACK TO THE FUTURE is to Steven Spielberg, here's a popular John Hughes movie, one of many during the 1980s, wherein he's the Executive Producer (and in John's case, Writer), not the Director, and if you really look close, it shows: while some of the characters have potential, there's simply no direction at all...<br>

andrew dice clay, andrew mccarthy, annie potts, brat pack, eighties, harry dean stanton, james spader, john hughes, jon cryer, molly ringwald

PRETTY IN PINK BY JOHN HUGHES

Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy & Jon Cryer headline PRETTY IN PINK written by John Hughes Like GREMINS or BACK TO THE FUTURE is to ...

HEAVEN HELP US

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-qEYNzDblaVCaTNgubwaJh7uqHgR7kbyVM_8B6DT_n8hLvILdTTCDg7S5XFFaM77jAGaYOUpa_CEu5hvV8tnOTQJzwqv05kTSmfwdqCKxRQhUI76PHeCxtBR_POzhASEqNlWxSuk8-kD/s1600/Heaven+Help+Us+pic+1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660456692005411026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-qEYNzDblaVCaTNgubwaJh7uqHgR7kbyVM_8B6DT_n8hLvILdTTCDg7S5XFFaM77jAGaYOUpa_CEu5hvV8tnOTQJzwqv05kTSmfwdqCKxRQhUI76PHeCxtBR_POzhASEqNlWxSuk8-kD/s200/Heaven+Help+Us+pic+1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 154px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">title:</span> HEAVEN HELP US<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">year:</span> 1985<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">cast:</span> Andrew McCarthy, Kevin Dillon, John Heard, Donald Sutherland<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">rating:</span> ***<br />
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Seeming like yet another teenage comedy from the 1980s, this has a little more. The cinematography, showing life in the early 60’s, looks authentically realistic, as are the locations within the school, especially the giant cathedral where all the students meet every morning. Although there are four main characters (including a young Patrick Dempsey), the two <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">mainliners</span> are Andrew McCarthy, revamping his persona from CLASS but with more confidence; and Kevin Dillon who, like his brother Matt, plays rebel to the hilt – ironically repeating God’s name in vain while picking on their fat, brainy friend. One really mean teacher ignites the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">adversary</span> spark, allowing our <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">eclectic</span> band of students to band together. And a love story between McCarthy and the willful daughter of a delicatessen owner (Mary Stuart <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Masterson</span>) provides a nice peripheral. Donald Sutherland plays the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">hardnosed</span>, monotone head priest, keeping his usual sly humor at bay. While John Heard, as an ultra progressive priest who backs the kids, makes you wonder: Why’s he even there at all?

andrew mccarthy, comedy, donald sutherland, eighties, kevin dillon