Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2020: Mick Jagger in The Burnt Orange Heresy

Mick Jagger will not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Joseph Cassidy in The Burnt Orange Heresy. 

The Burnt Orange Heresy is a film that despite a striking set-up devolves into not much of anything, about an art critic being hired to steal a masterwork from a reclusive painter. Honestly I think the film would've been better off it stayed more of a purely philosophical piece and didn't get into thriller/mystery trappings (or perhaps if they were better developed or paced). 

Anyway, I'll concede this is being done in part to create a new comments section, but eh I also wanted to talk about this performance after randomly watching this film. The charismatic rocker Mick Jagger plays the enigmatic host to the visiting critic, Claes Bang's James Figueras, and the reclusive painter Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland). Jagger has a fascinating presence as a performer on screen. Now the transfer of musician to convincing actor isn't always successful, but when it is, it can be something quite special. Like his performance, in Performance, Jagger here is rather fascinating in himself. There's just something about him onscreen that is wholly unusual, he deserves to be on screen, but at the same time he's unlike anyone else who would ever grace the screen, a bit like Tom Waits in that regard. Jagger's actual screentime in the film is relatively brief, but nonetheless steals the film wholesale with that. This as he appears as the eccentric rich man Cassidy and Jagger simply owns his space in that particularly wonderful way. This as Jagger carries the right oddness just as he carries this certain precise strength as well. There's a quiet cunning just as there's affable quality within his manner. He's there to deliver some exposition, and Jagger brings such wondrous texture to every word. There's just such a life of pleasure, wealth and experience within Jagger's portrayal. There's a strange wisdom in his eager delivery, but as well there's kind of a cutting quality about his words. Jagger's words are fascinating in that he speaks everything with such a jovial enthusiasm, but just the same he's wielding a real power with such ease. Jagger is magnetic and just fascinating to watch here. A true proper host for the film as he makes even just some random of discussions of art, with a few prying questions in between, carry so much in them. There's a sense of fun, extravagance even in Jagger's word, but at the same time an odd kind of threat. Jagger's eccentricity has a certain danger about it just as it is entertaining in its own way. It is hard to perfectly gauge the man, there's a perfect kind of mystery that Jagger grants. You can't quite tell if his Cassidy is just an aged playboy looking for a source of entertainment or more truly villainous in his requests. Jagger finds an elegant balance in the purpose of the character, though just as much, it must be said he makes every bit of dialogue sing through his totally atypical direction he takes every word. Jagger's performance never simply is there, there's a liveliness to every moment that is something special. Just the way his eyes go from welcoming towards some suspicion is dynamite. He prods with the same ease that he entices. Sadly Jagger is only sparsely used, though he comes back for a bit more, very welcome, spice at the very end of the film. Again finding a sense of menace with a believable smile, but a strangely piercing stare. The way Jagger goes on about different asides, there's a bit of threat in each little rambling of his. This is an absolutely wonderful performance by Mick Jagger, and though I wouldn't quite recommend the film, he does kind of make it worth viewing.