Since her film debut in 1994, Scarlett Johansson has become one of the most recognizable and
successful actors in Hollywood. Here are a few of the most critically acclaimed roles that Johansson
has portrayed throughout her career, from independent efforts to blockbuster smash hits.
Still Johansson's best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes, Lost in Translation was hailed as a
revelation upon its release in 2003, both for its leading performance by Bill Murray and for
Sofia Coppola's stylish and elegant direction. However, it's Johansson's performance that gives
the movie the profound sense of existential loneliness that Coppola's films are known for.
Johansson plays Charlotte, a recent college graduate visiting Japan.
Adrift in her life and uncertain about her future, Charlotte befriends fading actor Bob,
played by Murray, who feels similarly lost as he flounders through middle age. The two keep each
other company for a few days in Tokyo, forming a deep bond over their mutual sense of alienation.
The film landed Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Screenplay for Coppola,
and Best Actor for Murray, although Johansson was unfortunately snubbed. Regardless,
Lost in Translation was declared an instant classic by many critics.
Terry Lawson of The Detroit Press summed up the general appeal, writing,
"There is real magic afoot in Lost in Translation — the sort that is created
not at the wave of a wizard's wand, but by the coming together of two wayward souls."
Although Johansson didn't get much screen time in Avengers: Infinity War, her iconic portrayal
of the MCU's Natasha Romanoff, otherwise known as Black Widow, played a pivotal role in the
grand cinematic finale that was Avengers: Endgame. As one of the few Avengers left
standing after the Snap, Johansson plays a hero worn down by loss and despair.
Endgame provides Black Widow with an emotional sendoff, as she — spoiler alert — sacrifices
herself to help save the world. However, the cosmic dust had barely settled on Endgame
before Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige announced a Black Widow standalone movie in July 2019.
It may have taken nine years since the first Avengers movie for Johansson to get her own film,
but it's certainly better late than never for her legions of fans. Although the movie
was delayed multiple times, Black Widow is currently slated to hit theaters in July 2021.
While Johansson is primarily known for her live action work, she has also lent
her voice to a number of prominent films, including The Jungle Book, Isle of Dogs,
and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. However, her most acclaimed voiceover work to date was her role
as an artificially intelligent operating system in Her, written and directed by Spike Jonze.
The near-future sci-fi film, which won an Oscar for Jonze's original screenplay, chronicles the
romantic misadventures of sad-sack writer Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who finds
himself falling in love with the artificially intelligent virtual assistant "Samantha."
It's easy to see why Theodore falls for Samantha,
even though she has no physical form. Samantha's soulful personality, humor, empathy, curiosity,
and intelligence can all be felt through Johansson's voice alone. Samantha also conveys a
certain wistfulness about the experience of living that feels all too human, despite her artificial
nature. Critics were charmed and dazzled by Jonze's vision, with Empire magazine declaring,
"Jonze has made a sweet, smart, silly, serious film for our times, only set in the future."
Alongside Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, Johansson earned one of her first two
Oscar nominations in 2019 for Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story. A searing portrayal of divorce,
Marriage Story sees Johansson play Nicole, a former teen star married to Charlie,
a theater director played by fellow Oscar nominee Adam Driver. When Nicole wants
to move to Los Angeles to advance her career even though Charlie wants to stay in New York,
their already troubled union begins to slide towards dissolution.
Baumbach himself has said that the film is semi-autobiographical,
partially based on his divorce from actor Jennifer Jason Leigh.
While Baumbach's sympathies are clearly biased in Charlie's favor, Johansson still brings an
enormous amount of sympathy and relatability to the character of Nicole. Critics gushed
about the film and the performances, with Moira MacDonald of The Seattle Times raving,
"Johansson and Driver are remarkably, heartbreakingly good in every scene."
Ghost World was an early critical success for Johansson and an important transition
from her career as a child actor. Though she was only sixteen upon its release,
the 2001 movie, co-written and directed by Terry Zwigoff, is a mature and serious film about two
young women facing an uncertain world after their high school graduation. For Johansson,
Ghost World — adapted from Daniel Clowes' comic book series Eightball — was also her
first foray into a genre that would catapult her into the highest ranks of international stardom.
The movie stars Thora Birch as Enid, a classic Generation X archetype: ironic,
lost, and darkly cynical. Johansson plays the role of her best friend,
Rebecca, who is slightly more tethered to reality,
and their difference in outlook eventually leads the girls to having a falling-out.
"Some people are okay, but mostly I just feel like poisoning everybody."
Ghost World was not very popular with audiences,
but it was widely praised by critics, who appreciated its offbeat sense of humor,
emotional honesty, and unsparing depiction of teenage angst. As Roger Ebert wrote,
"I wanted to hug this movie. It takes such a risky journey and never steps wrong.
It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters,
and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humor."
The culmination of Phase One of the MCU, The Avengers proved that Marvel movies were here to
stay. The movie grossed more than 1.5 billion dollars and was beloved by both audiences and
critics, with a certified fresh score of 91% on the Tomatometer. With almost 25 minutes
of screentime, Johansson's Black Widow is the third most prominent character in The Avengers,
after Iron Man and Captain America. Even if her role in The Avengers isn't
as dramatically juicy as the one she gets in Captain America: The Winter Soldier,
she still gets her fair share of heroic moments, especially as the Avengers save
New York from Thor's brother Loki and his legions of alien henchmen in the final act.
While critics lauded the movie's action and special effects,
many were equally impressed by the performances of the Avengers themselves. In his review of
the film for The Atlantic, Christopher Orr wrote that Johansson's Black Widow is, quote,
"far more interesting than she was in Iron Man 2," and that the cast in general
"[...] is excellent down the line, and plays well together,
even — perhaps especially — when their characters don't."
The 2014 Captain America sequel The Winter Soldier was something of a welcome departure
for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase 2 of the MCU had gotten off to
a bit of a rocky start with the successful but uninspired Iron Man 3 and the middling Thor:
The Dark World. Both films had done well at the box office, but it was clear the MCU needed a
fresh approach. The Winter Soldier delivered by fusing its typical superhero fare with elements
of the spy thriller genre popularized by classic films like The Parallax View and Three Days of
the Condor. Critics were impressed with The Winter Soldier's action set pieces
and its topical narrative about the price of freedom and "security" in the age of surveillance.
As Black Widow is the primary Avenger featured alongside Captain America in the film,
Johansson benefited from the film's acclaim, and was subsequently prominently featured in Avengers:
Age of Ultron. But while that film's reputation may have faded over the years,
The Winter Soldier has emerged as an MCU favorite, with Johansson providing
a big part of its continuing appeal among both casual viewers and Marvel fanatics.
Johansson reunited with Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau for his 2014 passion project
about a middle-aged chef and his bold attempt to reignite his creative spirit. Favreau plays the
titular chef, Carl Casper, and Johansson is Molly, the hostess at the restaurant
Casper worked at for 10 years before his very public mid-life crisis meltdown.
"You're not getting to me! You're not getting to me! He's not getting to me!"
Favreau and Johansson have a natural chemistry in this film,
stuffed with stars as it is with delectable dishes, including Dustin Hoffman, Sofia Vergara,
and Robert Downey Jr. Johansson's Molly is just as appealing as any of the cuisine on display, which
is no small feat in a movie guaranteed to have you craving a gourmet meal from beginning to end.
Critics were mostly charmed by the light comedy — which sits at 87% on the Tomatometer — praising
the cast, the soundtrack, and of course, the delicious-looking food.
Writing in Little White Lies, Chris Blohm called the movie
"A sassy and mouth-watering concoction, bursting with flavour."
Given her comic abilities and previous experience as a sultry femme fatale-type in post-war Los
Angeles in The Black Dahlia, Johansson was a no-brainer to join George Clooney, Channing Tatum,
Ralph Fiennes, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton in the all-star cast of Hail,
Caesar!, a Coen Brothers comedy set in 1950s Hollywood. Johansson plays DeeAnna Moran,
a character based off of actress Esther Williams, who performs in synchronized swimming routines
that were popular at the time. When DeeAnna's unplanned pregnancy threatens her career and
the studio's bottom line, a studio fixer played by Josh Brolin is tasked with covering it up.
Although audiences had mixed reactions, critics enjoyed the movie,
praising the Coen Brothers' playful spirit, its performances, and its nostalgic reflection
on Hollywood's golden age. The Guardian's Mark Kermode wrote of the film as a whole,
"It's utterly chaotic and ridiculously indulgent, and it would amount to intolerable cruelty
were Hail, Caesar! not so consistently, uproariously, affectionately funny."
Johansson has carved out a niche for herself in the science fiction genre more than most of
her fellow A-list actors. In addition to her many appearances in the MCU and Her,
the actor has also headlined Michael Bay's The Island, the surprise global hit Lucy,
and the controversial live action remake of Ghost in the Shell. But while Under the Skin is sci-fi,
this indie film has little else in common with those big budget commercial affairs.
A product of guerrilla filmmaking, Under the Skin surrounded Johansson with real people,
not actors, and captured much of its unscripted footage with hidden cameras.
The movie is light on action in favor of a detached, cerebral story about a feminine alien,
played by Johansson, who uses her good looks to hunt down men throughout Scotland
and lure them back to her dark lair to consume them. However, as soon as she appears to identify
more traditionally as a human woman, she finds herself going from predator to prey.
Although a box office failure, Under the Skin found favor with critics and scholars who
read it as a feminist allegory about gender inequality. It also showed off Johansson's
continued desire to take on challenging and cryptic roles outside of the usual blockbusters.
Taika Waititi won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for his anti-hate satire Jojo Rabbit,
which made waves upon its release for its unique take on World War II. The film stars Roman Griffin
Davis as the titular Jojo, a young German boy whose imaginary best friend is a caricature of
Adolf Hitler, played by Waititi himself. While the film was marketed as a comedy, Johansson's role as
Jojo's mother Rosie serves as the emotional core of the film, as she struggles to balance being a
single mother to a blindly nationalist child with hiding a Jewish teenager from the Nazi forces.
Critics and audiences alike enjoyed Jojo Rabbit, praising its humor,
charm, and anti-hate message. However, as with many comic takes on Hitler and Nazis, Jojo Rabbit
generated its fair share of controversy, with Joanne Laurier writing that the movie
"[...] inadvertently or not trivializes Nazism and turns people away from a study
of the concrete historical processes that produced such horrific carnage."
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