Best and Worst of Scarlett Johansson

Article by Gabe Zia

This weekend, we've got two big films. Under the Skin and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. With two films, one a festival favourite by most accounts, and the other a blockbuster flick, it's expected a best and worst would be hard to choose from. But, strangely enough, both of these films have one actress in common, and that actress is Scarlett Johansson.

Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

She's become very popular over the years, in different crowds for different reasons. She's done a lot of films with Woody Allen, and has become very tied to her role as Black Widow in recent Marvel films. She's even moved to the indie crowd with films like Don Jon earning her some credibility.

For her best film, I was almost going to go with Her, seeing as how much I loved that movie. But there's another, fairly similar film. For my favourite film of hers, I gotta go with Lost in Translation.

Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation

This is just a wonderful film. It manages to create a fun atmosphere, but also keeping everything in moderation. The two leads- Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson- show both amazing acting chops, as well as comedic chops too. Not that Bill Murray really needed to prove he was a funny actor, but this is one of his funniest. And two leads have great chemistry, the writing in the film works with these two actors to create fluid dialogue, in which characters just bounce of each other in a really clever & creative way.

For least favourite, it wasn't exactly slim pickings. She hasn't really had a good run for a while, right up until recently. I could go with Scoop, I could go with The Island, I could go with Iron Man 2. But I've decided to go with the lesser known film, The Perfect Score.

Scarlett Johansson and... Chris Evans? Strange seeing you here too.

This film follows a teen fantasy type story, about a group of teenagers who plan a heist in order to steal SAT answers. This could lead to a really funny crime comedy, kind of like Snatch. But, unfortunately, the film is very poorly directed, the comedy is not at all well written, and none of the actors perform well. And again, that is Chris Evans up there. So it seems no matter how cool of a duo Captain America & Black Widow seem to make, it couldn't save this dull film.