This is a triumphant celebration of artistic longevity β Pulp, the sardonic Sheffield collective that defined British irony in pop music, receiving the prestige documentary treatment from a filmmaker of Jennings' caliber. The narrative frames their 2025 comeback album 'More' as a cultural event worth documenting for posterity.
Sources close to the production hint at previously unreleased footage spanning Pulp's entire career, including material from their lean years before Britpop made them famous. There's particular buzz around archival content that captures the band's notoriously chaotic early performances in Northern England clubs.
Pulp released 'More' in 2025 β their first album in 24 years since 'We Love Life' (2001). The Mercury Prize-winning band formed in Sheffield in 1978 with Jarvis Cocker, Russell Senior, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, Steve Mackey and Mark Webber, eventually selling over 10 million records.
Twenty-four years is a long time to keep fans waiting, but Pulp's 'More' era has apparently delivered enough material β and enough nostalgia currency β to justify a full theatrical treatment. Whether this documentary convinces skeptics that the comeback was worth the silence remains to be seen.
Garth Jennings, the filmmaker behind 'Sing' and 'Son of Rambow,' has set his sights on a different kind of spectacle: Pulp, the Sheffield collective who soundtracked a generation's worth of British disaffection. The documentary 'Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore?' will premiere exclusively on Mubi this fall, featuring narration from frontman Jarvis Cocker and 20 of the band's songs woven through what Jennings describes as a fusion of arena-show choreography and four decades of previously unreleased archival material.
The project draws explicit comparisons to two titans of concert cinema: Talking Heads' 'Stop Making Sense' (1984) and Martin Scorsese's 'The Last Waltz' (1978). According to Mubi, the film captures Pulp's largest-ever arena tour β staged in support of 'More,' their first album since 2001's 'We Love Life.' That's a 24-year gap between studio releases, a silence that makes Radiohead's hiatus look like a brief intermission. The documentary promises to answer its own titular question: after selling over 10 million records and headlining Glastonbury twice, what exactly does Pulp do for an encore?
The answer, apparently, involves excavating the band's complicated history. Formed in Sheffield in 1978 with Cocker at the helm alongside Russell Senior, Candida Doyle, Nick Banks, Steve Mackey and Mark Webber, Pulp spent nearly two decades laboring in cult-status obscurity before 'His 'n' Hers' and its follow-up 'Different Class' catapulted them to mainstream recognition. That Mercury Prize-winning record reached number one on the U.K.
Albums Chart, powered by the indelible single 'Common People,' which became an anthem for anyone who'd ever resented being othered by class or circumstance. Regarded as one of Britpop's 'big four' alongside Oasis, Blur and Suede, Pulp released 'This Is Hardcore' in 1998 before vanishing into a decade-long break after 'We Love Life.' They reunited in 2011 for festival appearances but offered no new material until last year. The production credits read like a prestige-industry who's-who: edited by Barney Pilling ('The Grand Budapest Hotel,' 'Mrs.
Harris Goes to Paris'), produced by Octavia Peissel for Opal Films alongside Danny Gabai and Amy Rattray at VICE Studios, with Paul Dugdale also credited. Executive producers include Cocker himself alongside Jeanette Lee, Stuart Goldstein and Tom Healy. The real intrigue lies in what Jennings has access to now that fans haven't seen.
Four decades of archival material suggests footage from Pulp's pre-fame days β their grimy Northern England club performances, the years of struggle before Britpop validated everything they'd been doing sarcastically and beautifully all along. Whether this documentary rehabilitates a legacy or merely commemorates it remains to be seen when Mubi drops 'What Do You Do for an Encore?' later this year.
