Released just three months after the Trump inauguration, the geopolitical action thriller G20 was always going to have unavoidable resonance. While the shoot ended back in March last year, there must have been points during the post-production process when those involved wondered if their film – a rousing story of a Black female president taking charge – would coincide with a similar, albeit less schlocky, real-world victory.
It wasn’t to be, and instead the film has landed on Amazon at a far less inspiring time for the US, when a president has decided to destroy rather than save his country. Any links to be made from fiction to fact push Trump’s agenda closer to that of the bad guys, who aim to tank the global economy and stop a perceived US overspend of foreign aid. While there are moments that might unintentionally insist we make the connection (lead villain expressing glee at a horribly familiar red stock market arrow), G20 isn’t trying to be The Political Film We Need Right Now, its makers smartly picking brawn over brain.
