‘Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore?’ review: Britpop misfits take a deserved victory lap

“What prevented me from joining the legion of lost souls?” Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker asks during their new documentary What Do You Do For An Encore?, “The band.” Shot during their victory lap tour in support of last year’s ‘More’ – their first album for 24 years – this delicate and personal film focuses on the seed of Pulp’s success: Cocker’s childhood dreams. READ MORE: Pulp – ‘More’ review: older wiser mis-shapes are still a different class The film opens with a performance of comeback single ‘Spike Island’. The song itself is a reinstatement of their core values (“I exist to do this/Shouting and pointing”) and the frontman is in full flight: all telescopic fingers and twitchy model wiggles in his Serge Gainsbourg suit – a cypher for all his “Mis-shapes, Mistake, Misfit” fans. What Do You Do For An Encore? is a celebration of Pulp, tracing their supermarket sweep from Sheffield wannabes to national treasures, stitching together live footage with decades-old interviews and a voiceover from Cocker himself. Early on, director Garth Jennings’ flashes up a bricolage of Pulp memoranda (flyers, stickers, album covers, backstage footage). It’s a cinematic Proustian moment because the c...