A review by turnerjo
Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to '80s Teen Movies by Kevin Smokler

3.0

I wanted to really like this book. They say that explaining a joke is one of the more tedious things possible. Explaining a movie plot is probably in second place. This book is full of long plot descriptions, which typically focus on the movies' settings and why those are so important. The book's title seems like clever marketing rather than an accurate descriptor of what's inside. There is surprisingly little on the Brat Pack. There's a ton on non-Brat Pack. There's also a secondary thesis about setting or place that I find distracting. The book also struggled to locate an audience. It's too academic for a popular book. It'd probably be useful if you're writing a thesis on 80s movies.