Time & Perspective Quote by Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson isn’t just praising Woody Allen here; she’s performing a kind of cultural credentialing. “A required part of your film history” turns taste into homework, implying that serious cinephiles don’t get to opt out. It’s a neat rhetorical move because it shifts the conversation away from whether you like him and toward whether you’re educated enough to have an opinion. In one sentence, Allen becomes canon, and canon becomes obligation.

The line also works as brand alignment. Johansson, an actress whose stardom straddles Marvel spectacle and prestige drama, is signaling fluency in an older New York intellectual tradition: talky, neurotic, literature-adjacent films that flatter audiences for catching the subtext. Calling the movies “not just funny but... insightful about human behavior” is a strategic elevation, a way to frame Allen as more than a gag-machine. “Insightful” is the key word: it suggests psychological acuity, the kind that grants actors juicy interiority and awards-season gravitas.

Context matters because Allen’s reputation is not just aesthetic. In the 2010s and especially post-#MeToo, praising him became a loyalty test, whether intended or not. Johansson’s phrasing preempts critique by foregrounding artistry and influence, not biography. The subtext is: whatever you’ve heard, the work is too important to ignore. That’s the classic defense of embattled auteurs, and it’s persuasive precisely because it appeals to the anxiety many people have about being culturally illiterate.