Flea

Flea often appears among people who do not fit in, and looks entirely at home. As one of the nihilists in The Big Lebowski (1998), he gives the Coens another distinct, unruly presence in a film already well supplied with them. We enjoy this sort of casting: a small part can be right without needing to become a large one. His physical energy makes sense here, though the brief appearance gives us little basis for judging how he might sustain a film.

That use of him goes back to Penelope Spheeris’s punk film Suburbia (1983), in which he played Razzle. Needles in Back to the Future Part II (1989) took him into a major franchise, with the part reprised in Back to the Future Part III (1990). Acting remained occasional and secondary to music, rather than developing through a steady succession of larger parts. The attraction is easy to understand: he brings a recognisable physical restlessness, and filmmakers tend to find room for that rather than disguise it.

My Own Private Idaho (1991) puts him, as Budd, in Gus Van Sant’s company alongside River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. We were moved by Phoenix’s Mike because his loneliness remains painful even when the Shakespearean passages grow laboured. That distinction matters when considering Flea: our affection for the film is not a claim that its small supporting performances do the same work. We recommend both this and The Big Lebowski, but Phoenix in one, and Jeff Bridges and John Goodman in the other, give us the strongest reasons.

Low Down (2014), with Flea as jazz trumpeter Hobbs, offered a more substantial dramatic part than the cameos. It is worth keeping that role in view rather than assuming that a brief opportunity to be odd is all his acting amounts to. The later supporting appearance as Eddie in Baby Driver (2017) sits more readily within the familiar pattern. Start with The Big Lebowski, and do not expect him to be in charge of the evening.