Let’s meet up in the year 2000. Well, for Pulp, it was actually 2011. Almost a decade after releasing their last studio album, “We Love Life”, the Sheffield band unexpectedly found their way back to each other. What initially looked like a short-lived reunion, culminating in a hometown concert in 2012, became something much bigger. Fifteen years later, Pulp remain one of Britain’s most beloved bands. They continue to fill huge indoor venues and festivals around the world. By packing London’s O2 Arena with almost 20,000 fans (including some very familiar faces) in 2025, Pulp prove their comeback still has plenty of life.
That unlikely longevity sits at the heart of Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? Directed by longtime collaborator Garth Jennings, this beautiful audiovisual scrapbook mixes footage from the band’s huge London show with much more intimate glimpses into their past. The result sits somewhere between a concert film and a documentary. At times, Jennings creates something that resembles an elaborate yet playful Pulp music video. At others, it feels remarkably intimate thanks to the old photographs and recordings. Just like the band itself, Jennings has never been particularly interested in doing things the conventional way.
And who better to guide us through this lively trip into Pulp’s past and present than Jarvis Cocker himself? His dry narration is certainly one of the film’s biggest delights. It strikes the perfect balance between humour and his eccentric personality, which makes him such a magnetic presence. Like many documentaries, this feature could easily turn Pulp’s history into an overly serious account. It could focus solely on artistic struggles, success and inevitable ups and downs. Instead, Cocker approaches the narration with warmth, amusement and a refreshing lack of self-importance.
That lack of self-importance also comes through in how little the band seem to comprehend their own significance worldwide. Despite decades of success, huge festival appearances and songs embedded in British pop culture, they still see themselves as a bunch of outsiders. “Babies”, “Disco 2000” and “Common People” may now be indie-party must-haves, but Pulp never seem to take their success for granted. A wonderfully emotional sequence involving their number-one chart trophy captures that perfectly.
Jennings balances that humility perfectly with the immense scale of the O2. The concert footage is spectacular, with thousands of fans filling the arena as Cocker sweeps them off their feet. As those huge crowd shots are interwoven with old photographs and footage of the band long before they achieved such success, past and present collide in a beautifully nostalgic way.
However, don’t expect this to be just another documentary fuelled by music nostalgia. While there’s plenty of it, Jennings mainly uses the past to highlight how much has changed since the band formed in 1978. Those changes go beyond the music and extend to the band itself. Bassist Steve Mackey died in 2023, and one of the film’s most emotional passages allows the band to honour their friend. Jennings strips away much of the enormous production surrounding the concert to create a far more intimate moment. After witnessing the scale and spectacle of the O2, that intimacy hits even harder, as does the connection between the band members and the moving respect between Pulp and their fans.
Perhaps inevitably, the biggest frustration is that all those decades can’t fit into a single documentary/concert film. At roughly 100 minutes, Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? covers an enormous amount of history while also capturing the scale of Pulp’s latest tour. However, it feels like plenty of footage was left on the editing-room floor that could have given certain periods in Pulp’s history more attention.
When the bright red curtains from the opening scene close, it becomes clear that Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? captures something more interesting than a band returning to play its greatest hits. Nostalgia undeniably surrounds Pulp, but that doesn’t mean the band simply revels in the past. They keep making new music and getting fans to jump around like they’re in the cosiest underground club imaginable. Pulp may be playing an encore, but they haven’t sung their last note yet.
Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? will screen in US cinemas for one night only on September 24 before streaming on MUBI from September 25.
When the bright red curtains from the opening scene close, it becomes clear that Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore? captures something more interesting than a band returning to play its greatest hits.
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Freelancer by day. Film journalist by night.
