Thunderbolts*, Kneecap and Jon Hamm: Here’s what not to miss in culture this week
Marvel’s latest movie Thunderbolts* is grabbing attention; Kneecap’s gig behaviour is sparking debate; and Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof is serving up a must-see contemporary art show. Culture this week? We've got you covered.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/05/02/thunderbolts-kneecap-and-jon-hamm-heres-what-not-to-miss-in-culture-this-week
Spark your senses, wake your wonder. Euronews Culture seeks to show creativity in action and inspire our audience to explore the world through the five senses. Start your journey through the best of Europe's arts, gastronomy, traditions and high-end craftsmanship.
Marvel’s latest movie Thunderbolts* is grabbing attention; Kneecap’s gig behaviour is sparking debate; and Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof is serving up a must-see contemporary art show. Culture this week? We've got you covered.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/05/02/thunderbolts-kneecap-and-jon-hamm-heres-what-not-to-miss-in-culture-this-week
Spark your senses, wake your wonder. Euronews Culture seeks to show creativity in action and inspire our audience to explore the world through the five senses. Start your journey through the best of Europe's arts, gastronomy, traditions and high-end craftsmanship.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to another edition of our weekly roundup of What's On Our Cultural Agenda.
00:09I'm Takunbo Sinarko, joining me this week is my erstwhile colleague David Morricone.
00:13David, how are you?
00:14I'm all right, thank you. How are you?
00:15Very, very, very, very good. Glad to hear it.
00:18Well, let's talk about what's been catching our eye this week.
00:22Let's start off with music, and in particular one of our favourite bands,
00:25the Northern Irish rappers, a kneecap. Why are they in the news?
00:29They've been in the news a lot this week.
00:31So for anyone who doesn't know, kneecap, as you say, are this Northern Irish rap band
00:37who have had this kind of meteoric kind of rise to success recently,
00:42specifically with a film that was released last year called Kneecap,
00:45which was about the band, and we interviewed the director, Richard Pepiat, on that film,
00:50and their debut album, Fine Art, which was one of our favourite albums of last year.
00:56And recently they found themselves at the centre of the attention of the counter-terror police in the UK,
01:05following a rather controversial set that they played in Coachella,
01:09in which their political statements on Palestine rubbed people up the wrong way.
01:13And it turns out that two videos surfaced from a gig last year and a gig in 2023,
01:20which have caught the attention of the counter-terror police, which seems a little bit extreme.
01:26One of those videos allegedly shows them saying,
01:30up Hamas, up Hezbollah.
01:32And the other one apparently shows the group calling for the deaths of Conservative MPs,
01:38saying the only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.
01:43Yeah, the targeting of Conservative MPs is a particularly sensitive issue in the UK
01:49because there have been a number of MPs who have been killed by suspected Islamic terrorists.
01:56In this particular case, David Amess and his daughter has had some strong words to say on it,
02:01and that's been echoed by leading members of the Conservative Party.
02:05Tell us more about that.
02:05Well, yes, the daughter of Sir David Amess expressed her shock at NICAP's alleged statements
02:13and asked for an apology.
02:15An apology was given.
02:16They've said that they've never supported Hamas or Hezbollah
02:20and that they condemned all attacks on civilians.
02:24And they also said that they are the victims of a smear campaign
02:28and that these words were deliberately taken out of context
02:32and weaponised in order to silence them.
02:35Now, there have been calls from various politicians to remove them from festival lineups
02:43and that seems to have worked in some certain cases
02:47and certain tour dates have been cancelled in Berlin, for example, or at the Eden Project.
02:53Here, we're still waiting.
02:55The police are still assessing these videos and there are calls for more apologies.
02:59But, in a recent development, a number of bans have supported NICAP and have signed petitions
03:05in order to support them against these attacks on them.
03:10And, in particular, Massive Attack, who released the following statement,
03:13NICAP are not the story.
03:16If senior politicians can find neither the time nor the words to condemn, say,
03:20the murder of 15 voluntary aid workers in Gaza,
03:24or the illegal starvation of civilian population as a method of warfare,
03:29or the killing of thousands of thousands of children in the same territory
03:33by a state in possession of the highest precision weapons on earth,
03:37how much notice should a music festival take on their moral advice for booking performance acts?
03:45So, it's obviously when it comes to these very delicate subjects
03:48and when it comes to murder and genocide,
03:51obviously language is important
03:53and it's not a cause for flippancy or reckless language,
03:58but the situation continues
04:00and it remains to be seen whether NICAP will be able to perform
04:03during the summer at festivals around Europe.
04:06David, thank you for that.
04:07Let's talk now about an art installation
04:09that's just opened up in the Hamburger Bahnhof in Germany.
04:13Tell us more about that and who's behind it.
04:15Yeah, this one has really caught my eye.
04:17It's a very striking new exhibition
04:19which will be open for quite a while now.
04:21It's by a Czech artist,
04:23and I apologise if I butcher her name,
04:25Clara Hasnedlova.
04:27And she's transformed, as you say,
04:30Berlin Hamburger Bahnhof
04:32into this huge exhibition called Embrace.
04:35And it's filled with these very impressive sculptures,
04:39these impressive tapestries,
04:41some of which look like overgrown dreadlocks,
04:45mingy carpets almost.
04:49I was just about to say,
04:50it reminded me of my former glory.
04:51No, your dreadlocks have always been glorious.
04:53And also these sculptures,
04:57which are like cartilage, bone,
05:00even fossils.
05:01And it merges nature,
05:03but also she's done something very,
05:05very interesting,
05:06is to pair all of this with a soundscape,
05:09which celebrates the folklore
05:12and her home near the Czech-Slovakian border.
05:16And, yeah, it looks and sounds very,
05:20very impressive.
05:21And it is an incredibly arresting show.
05:24Let's hear now from the artist in her own words
05:26and hear what she has to say about her art.
05:29It's a lot inspired by the nature from where I am
05:33and especially in the sound.
05:36For example, these women's voices,
05:39they are singing very old traditional songs
05:42from the area called Kopanice.
05:46It's a small area close to Czech and Slovakian borders.
05:50Okay, and that exhibition is on for several months.
06:02Do try and catch it if you can.
06:04Let's move now to talk about TV.
06:06And, you know, we spend a lot of our time
06:08sat on our backsides.
06:09We're always accused of that,
06:10but with a good cause.
06:11A very good cause.
06:13And so I'm, as you know,
06:15constantly keeping up with shows,
06:17but you have been watching one show
06:19which has completely gone off my radar
06:22purely because there are so many to keep a track of.
06:24So what have you been watching?
06:25Well, this week I've been watching
06:26Your Friends and Neighbours.
06:28It stars Jon Hamm.
06:30It's on Apple TV.
06:32And what I find really interesting about this story,
06:34Jon Hamm, I've always liked him.
06:36I met him 20 years ago
06:37just when he was just,
06:38his star was rising in madness.
06:41Is he as dashing in person?
06:43Because, I mean, when I see him on screen,
06:44I'm just like, ah, damn.
06:47That's what a real man looks like.
06:48He certainly does have incredible presence.
06:51We saw him last year in Fargo
06:53and he really sort of carried that series.
06:56But in this, it's a completely different role.
06:58He plays a wealthy trader
07:00and it's an enormous fall from grace.
07:03You know, he's got everything around him,
07:05all the creature comforts that he would want.
07:08And interestingly, much like, let's say,
07:11Breaking Bad and many other series
07:12that we've seen over the few years,
07:14it starts off with the person being the protagonist.
07:17You see them in that worst-case scenario.
07:20He wakes up, he doesn't know where he is,
07:21there's a dead body next to him.
07:23And then, over the next two, three episodes
07:25that's been out, we go back
07:27and we see sort of, you know,
07:28what led up to that moment.
07:30So, so far, so good.
07:32I'll keep a lookout for that.
07:33I have been to the cinema
07:35because I spend most of my life there,
07:38as you know, for a change.
07:39And I've seen the new Marvel film
07:41called Thunderbolts,
07:42with the little asterisks.
07:44Why the asterisks?
07:46I will not say.
07:47It is explained in the film
07:48and I fear that,
07:50no, I think people should have
07:52the joy of finding out why.
07:54So there we go.
07:54This is the 36th Marvel film
07:57in the MCU.
07:59I don't even care.
07:59So there's so many.
08:01I mean, I always kind of, you know,
08:02I've seen quite a few of them.
08:03You know, I've got younger kids
08:04who, you know, love this kind of stuff.
08:06But, you know, it's no secret
08:08that Marvel's fortunes
08:09have been sort of failing
08:10over the last few years.
08:13Post-Endgame, it's true,
08:15there has been a bit of a dip.
08:16In fact, a massive dip.
08:18And I'm pleased to say
08:19that this is good.
08:22This actually is a solid sign
08:24that maybe, especially looking forward
08:26to the Fantastic Four this summer
08:28and leading up to the new
08:31big ten-pole film,
08:34Avengers Doomsday,
08:36this seems like it's going
08:38in the right direction.
08:39So essentially, this,
08:41the Thunderbolts, Asterix,
08:43is essentially the Dirty Dozen
08:45or Marvel's answer
08:48to DC's Suicide Squad.
08:50So it's the anti-heroes
08:51who have now got their platform.
08:54It's fun.
08:55It starts off as a spy film
08:56and it works really, really well
08:58like that, you know,
08:59betrayal, you know,
09:00who's working for who.
09:02It does devolve a little bit
09:04towards the end.
09:05It doesn't quite stick the landing,
09:06I think, was a little bit anticlimactic.
09:09However, it does deal
09:10in a rather, rather good way
09:13with the theme of depression.
09:15Because essentially,
09:16the main antagonist
09:17at the end of the day
09:18is trauma.
09:20And past trauma
09:22and how to deal with your past
09:24and, you know,
09:25how depression is this gulf
09:27that, you know,
09:28completely envelops you.
09:29And it does it
09:31in a very surface-level way.
09:32Of course,
09:33there's all the action
09:33and fight scenes
09:34that you would want
09:35from a Marvel film.
09:36But I think this gets
09:37the tone quite,
09:38really quite,
09:39they do it quite well
09:40between quite an intimate story,
09:42which is rare for Marvel,
09:44something a little bit
09:44more personal
09:45and something also fun.
09:47And I thought
09:48that the balancing act
09:49that it achieves
09:50was rather,
09:51rather well done.
09:52Acting-wise,
09:54David Harbour
09:54stands out.
09:56He is absolutely hilarious
09:57as the Red Guardian.
09:59But I've said it once,
10:00I'll say it a million more times,
10:03Florence Pugh.
10:04I mean,
10:05well,
10:06as an actress,
10:07she can do no harm.
10:09But she steals the show.
10:10She has done
10:11in all of her appearances
10:13in Marvel.
10:14She's always just really
10:15been the best thing
10:17about the films.
10:18And here,
10:18she really gets
10:19a chance to shine.
10:20So if people want to see
10:22Thunderbolts,
10:23Asterix,
10:24they can.
10:26But this just makes me
10:28want to watch
10:28more Florence Pugh films
10:30or re-watch,
10:31should I say.
10:32Because, you know,
10:33when you've got
10:34Little Women,
10:35the Greta Gerwig
10:36in which she plays Amy,
10:38that,
10:39she was fantastic in that.
10:40She's also fantastic
10:41in several other films
10:42which are maybe
10:43lesser seen.
10:45There's one called
10:46The Falling,
10:47which was in 2014,
10:48if I'm not mistaken,
10:49the Carol Morley film,
10:51which essentially deals
10:52with these fainting spells
10:54in an all-girls school.
10:55And it is incredible
10:57and it features
10:57an absolutely stunning
10:59soundtrack from
11:00Tracy Thorne
11:01of Everything But The Girl.
11:03And there's also one
11:04which is a personal
11:04favourite of mine
11:05called The Wonder
11:06by Sebastian Lalo.
11:07And this is a period piece
11:10adapted from the book
11:12by Emma Donoghue.
11:13And it deals with
11:15science versus faith
11:17and the stories
11:18that we create,
11:20the stories we inherit,
11:22the stories we don't
11:23question enough.
11:24And it features
11:25this absolutely gorgeous
11:26score by Matthew Herbert
11:28which is haunting
11:29in all the right ways
11:30and gives it a bit of
11:32a gothic kind of feel.
11:35And yeah,
11:36so basically
11:36Thunderbolt's good.
11:38Very, very good.
11:39For a 36th film,
11:40it kind of redeems things,
11:42you know,
11:42kind of shows Marvel
11:43as still stories to tell.
11:45But it just made me
11:47want to re-watch
11:48some of Franger's best hits.
11:49Okay, well,
11:50that's one that
11:51the box offices
11:52now across Europe
11:54do go out and see it
11:56if you have a chance.
11:57Much more on the agenda,
11:59of course.
12:00Do check out
12:00our weekly roundup.
12:02That's on our website.
12:04For now, David,
12:05thank you very much
12:05for your time
12:06and thank you for your time
12:07for joining us.
12:08More to come.
12:09Stay with us.
12:10Stay with us.