SnoopyStyle Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) is an introverted loner. Her mother Georgie (Cheryl Ladd) is sickly. Sylvie rebels against her conservative TV commentator father Darryl (Tom Skerritt). She is taken with the sexy trashy new girl (Drew Barrymore) who has a fake Ivy tattoo on her thigh. Sylvie befriends the new girl and gives her the name Ivy. Ivy starts insinuating into Sylvie's life causing trouble in her family and even seducing her father.Drew was shedding her child star status at the time. This is overwrought and pulpy. It's Lolita being even trashier. Gilbert and Barrymore are great. There is a young Leonardo DiCaprio in a minor role. This is trashy art that teases an erotic thriller. I can certainly understand how this could be dismissed but it has some pulpy fun.

TxMike I somehow missed seeing this movie back in the 90s, and saw it today via Netflix streaming. Drew Barrymore plays the teenage Lolita (she really was a teenager, as was Gilbert) and if I had seen this originally probably would have had a different reaction. Now she has become a star in many movies, including the "Charlie's Angels" movies where she is somewhat of a goofball, making it more difficult to see her as a Lolita. The movie is somewhat interesting, especially to see Barrymore and Gilbert as teenagers, but overall this story plows no new ground, and the conclusion is rather predictable. Sara Gilbert is Sylvie Cooper and Drew Barrymore is the new student, Ivy. They hit it off right away at school and pretty soon Ivy is making herself right at home with the Coopers, practically ends up living there.The dad is Tom Skerritt as Darryl Cooper, General Manager at a local TV station and clearly wealthy. His wife is Cheryl Ladd as Georgie Cooper, who spends most of her time in her bedroom, and most of that time in bed, not sure if she had a physical or just a psychological illness.Ivy has mastered the art of being devious, but then being apologetic so that no one thinks she is at fault, or forgives her for her wrongs. But Ivy sees an opening with dad because of his sadness over his wife's unavailability.The credits list Leonardo DiCaprio simply as "a guy" but it isn't clear where he might be seen. He looked a bit different as a scrawny teenager. SPOILERS: After Ivy befriends mom, even wearing some of her nice clothes, one day on the upper balcony off mom's bedroom, asks her "Do you ever think of it (jumping off)?" Then Ivy pushes her, holds her over the ledge for a couple of seconds to look into her eyes, then lets her slip away. As the story progresses, and Ivy begins an affair with dad, who loses his job at the TV station, Sylvie becomes wise to everything and Ivy meets her death the same way as mom, from the same balcony, dresses in one of mom's gowns. She was "poison."

JimmyL5555 I read all the positive praise of this movie, so I was ready for some gripping drama, and so I rent it. After 15 minutes I was so disgusted with it, I stopped it, and returned it. Here's why:In all the "Hand that Rocks the Cradle" copycat movies I've seen, they ALL show us right away as how the characters meet. With "Poison Ivy," the movie begins with Ivy and Coop ALREADY BEING FRIENDS, or at the very least being acquainted. To me, what makes these movies terrifying, would be that you just don't know the stranger you happen to meet, bump into, or circumstances where the paths cross. Where did Ivy come from? Instead of scenarios in which we as viewers can witness, all we have are what Ivy tells us. And for the only source of who a character is and where she comes from is from what she says, we cannot trust it. From a legal standpoint, it would be considered "heresay."And not only can we not trust what Ivy tells us, we quickly learn we cannot believe what Cooper tells us either as she lies to Ivy -- and us -- by her claim of her biological father being black, and she adopted, when that wasn't true, and the lie she told Ivy -- and us -- that she cut herself trying to commit suicide, and then told us a few moments later, that THAT wasn't true, either.And Cooper's narrative time-jumps, almost as if she's in a hurry to tell her story, and within a few minutes of the movie we go from them speaking of wishing to be friends to Ivy moving in with the family. I'm sorry, but that transition is too sudden, too abrupt, too jolting, that we as viewers feel it's thrown in our face quickly to sort it out later.And Cooper's parents are the weakest parents I've ever seen. They have no backbone, no real authoritative presence, almost as if they're there for convenience's sake, they have no life outside just existing there, and within those first moments of this movie, it seems Cooper's father has no job-life.And so, for me, we have in the first 15 minutes no characters we really don't know nor trust, nor even care about. IMHO, don't waste your time with this movie. There are plenty of other good ones of this type of story.

tartis1955 This movie is really one of the best teen films I've ever seen. It is about mysterious seductive girl who somehow draws the attention of an introverted girl who thinks the girl is slutty, but likes her anyway. She not only wins over sylvie's good graces but also on the rest of her family and her dog. While the mother lays dying in bed with a terminal illness, drew barrymore's character took advantage of this situation and seduces him, knowing he wasn't getting any sex from his wife . With his dying wife While slyvie gradually watch her new friend take over her life , by first getting her dog to like ivy and then earning the mother good graces. Slyvie seems like a very insecure person to me because I think she knew ivy kinda wanted to used her after she started buying stuff with constantly but I guess she thinks a freeloader is better than no relationship at all. Sylvie's insecurity really shows when she gets mad that her dog ,who is the only person her dog doesn't bark at , when the dog starts taken a liken to ivy.Definitely an underrate film. I think solid performances were both given by all the actors . The music score set the tone for the film perfectly because I think it matches the mood of the film very well. Ivy wants two from Slyvie apparently : to replaced the dying mother and to be the new sexual lover for Slyvie's father that gradually died away from sylvie's mother when she acquired emphysema. sylvie's mother and ivy had something in common that sylvie wanted from both of them: Slyvie wanted ivy's appeal to risk taking situations and she wanted her mother's beauty.