French math rock titans have been teasing a new release for months now, but if you haven’t heard, it’s not for a new record – they’re back with a documentary by director Aurélien Le Beau, who followed the band across the UK in May 2025 to capture several interviews with the band, not to mention several performances and moments with the fans.
For most of you, that single run-on sentence of an intro is more than enough to send you speeding towards it. Totorro, perhaps more than ever, deserve that level of passion. Sofa King Great is a must-watch, whether you’re a longtime fan or curious casual. It’s got fantastic production and cinematography in all the right places, but still manages to feel raw, even exposed where it needs to. We won’t spoil all the details, but we will implore you to discover them for yourself below:
(The new documentary is generously streaming on Youtube for now so watch while you can!)
Ultimately, we have a hunch that after watching the whole thing, even passive fans will find themselves endeared to Totorro and their crew no matter where they are. The best music documentaries seem to brew camaraderie in the most disparate of places, not unlike touring itself, and Sofa King Great really succeeds in making you feel like you’re not just there, but like you’re part of it.
For instance, there’s a moment in the car where the drummer and one of the guitarists are going back and forth about how difficult it is to organize and delegate various responsibilities for the tour. You can tell it’s frustrating in different ways for both of them, but you also hear them talk it out with love and respect while trying to figure out a different approach. If you’ve ever toured with your friends in a van across a country, you know how difficult that can be, so to see them being so raw but genuine and compassionate was as inspiring as any of the excellent performances found here, of which there are several.
There are a lot of documentaries on bands in math rock, many with great production and great interviews, most chock full of important information. But few of them have a heart of their own with narratives and lessons that resonate outside of existing fandom – that’s what, in our opinion, makes Sofa King Great the best math rock documentary currently available. It doesn’t throw a whole scene at you, it just takes an honest picture of its own, and somehow it shows us more because of it. Hats off to Totorro, Aurélien Le Beau and the crew for really taking the time to make something truly special. It is Sofa King Great.
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