Scarlett Johansson: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

1. Becky - Ghost World (2001)

Ghost World is very much a similar story to Her, in that it would probably never be considered Johansson's film. In this case that accolade goes to co-star Thora Birch, the more "interesting" of the pair of girls we follow through curious adolescent tribulations in Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of the cherished comic book. The film certainly offers more focus to Birch's Enid, because her oddity is deemed more entertaining than Becky's move towards normalcy, but that doesn't mean that the performances are in any way on different plains. Crucially Johansson's character is the link between the "real" world and the Ghost World - the anchor, perfectly pitched on Johansson's beauty and charm - that stops the director from making too much fun of the freaks that inhabit the rest of his world, like Birch's Enid and Steve Buscemi's Seymour. And her performance is all the more impressive as you watch her transformation from the boundaries of normal behaviour back into the middle, as she becomes increasingly estranged from her darker, stranger friend - and though it is through Enid's eyes that we experience the film, it is through Becky's that we realise how strange the whole situation is. And now on to the less than appealing performances...