The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel

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The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel

2026

1h 33m

Music

Documentary

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8 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

Gritty, formative years of the Los Angeles band and the influence of original guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died in 1988. It features interviews with bandmates Flea and Anthony Kiedis who discuss the band's early evolution.

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Brian Tallerico

RogerEbert.com

Mar 19

2.5/4

Like most music docs, 'The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Our Brother Hillel’ will work best for fans of its subject.

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Daniel Fienberg

The Hollywood Reporter

Mar 16

A highly entertaining, full of ridiculously fun early footage of the band and its predecessors, and deeply emotional, with Flea succeeding in making me tear up on multiple occasions.

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Owen Gleiberman

Variety

Mar 13

“The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers” is totally worth seeing, but the film feels like an indirect act of contrition, which may be why it turns into an overdone lament.

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Alex Hudson

Exclaim!

1d

8/10

Ben Feldman's doc is poetic account of how a friend group of like-minded oddballs shared a chemistry so pure that it turned them into one of the most famous bands of a generation.

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Johnny Loftus

Decider

3d

With its focus on founding guitarist Hillel Slovak, The Rise of Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel develops an inspiring portrait of an artist as a young man, who was taken too soon.

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Diego Batlle

Otroscines.com

4d

3/5

Admittedly, the documentary addresses the self-destructive drug use...with brutal honesty...but beyond a certain sense of emotion you get from Flea...there's a constant search for self-exculpatory lament in the documentary. [Full review in Spanish]

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Greg P.

@Gcpilling 11h

I graduated from high school in 1980 and a girlfriend introduced me to them in 1985. But I didn't really get hooked on them until the late 90s, I couldn't get enough of them and they are one of my favorite bands. My kids love them. After watching this documentary, I'm shocked that I was going through a lot of the same things after high school that they did. I also, am one of the lucky ones that survived and cherish every day. It makes me love them even more. Such a well produced documentary and an incredible story about the man I never knew about, and that is the one responsible for the existence of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

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Alex M

@alexkidinmovieworld 4d

I was profoundly moved by this honest documentary and really encourage anyone who has come through the hell of drugs to watch. For me this isn't a documentary about one of the biggest bands of the last 4 decades... It's one of 3 friends losing their souls to drugs and spending the rest of their lives reconciling with what could have been. Its an honest account, in the modern world of neatly shot documentaries this is a brass tacks approach which some might find sterile however the music and accounts of Flea in particular hit hard.

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T 4.

@Tforte 5d

It is great to see Hillel get is day in the sun for the modern listeners, he was since an integral part of the early chili peppers. It’s great to see an in-depth look into the man he was.

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Ben Feldman

Director

Flea

Self

Anthony Kiedis

Self

Chad Smith

Self

Dave Navarro

Self

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Self

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Gritty, formative years of the Los Angeles band and the influence of original guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died in 1988. It features interviews with bandmates Flea and Anthony Kiedis who discuss the band's early evolution.

Director: Ben Feldman
Producer: Marc D'Agostino
Distributor: Netflix
Production Co: Submarine Entertainment, Netflix
Genre: Music, Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 20, 2026
Runtime: 1h 33m

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