Poison Ivy 1 (1992)

"[Cheryl Ladd gives] a delicate, surprisingly moving performance.  Hal Hinson, Washington Post

Editor's Note A scheming woman named Ivy insinuates herself into a solitary schoolmate's wealthy family with evil intentions.

	Drew Barrymore
	Cheryl Ladd
	Sara Gilbert
	Tom Skerritt
	Andy Ruben, et. al. - Director
	Phedon Papamichael - Director of Photography
	Gina Mittelman - Editor
	Melissa Godard, et al. - Executive Producer
	David Michael Frank - Musical Score
	Virginia Lee - Production Designer
	Andy Ruben, et al. - Screenplay
	Melissa Goddard, et al. - Writer/Story

Lonely teen Sylvie Cooper befriends sexy schoolmate Ivy and watches as Ivy moves into her home and slowly takes over the Cooper family. A little girl gone bad, she seduces Sylvie's father and betrays the bedridden mother. Ripping the family apart, Ivy situates herself as the new mother. Only Sylvie can save her family. New York Times
"...[Shea] displays a gleeful enthusiasm for the B-movie genre....Barrymore brings her own brand of toughness to the [role]..." 05/08/1992 p.C16

Entertainment Weekly
"...[Barrymore] has grown up into a startlingly salacious young woman....Her fresh-yet-jaded sultriness is alive on screen..." 05/08/1992 p.38-40

Los Angeles Times
"...[Shea] knows how to work up a stylish sense of dread..." 05/29/1992 p.F6

Washington Post 0 of 10
Cooper, the narrator of Poison Ivy, is a poor little rich girl. Played by Sara Gilbert, she's a mess of a thing without a friend to her name, living in Los Angeles with her beautiful mother (Cheryl Ladd), who's dying of emphysema, and her wealthy father (Tom Skerritt), who's going through a midlife crisis. If she could, Cooper would rebel against her empty suburban life, but about all that she can manage is self-pitying sarcasm. In her heart, she'd love to be like Ivy (Drew Barrymore), whose slutty, "up yours!" attitude she has long admired from afar. Ivy, as it turns out, is just as much a loner as Cooper, and once they meet they instantly become best friends... All is not quite right with Ivy, though. There's something creepy about her, especially in how she charms her way into the mother's good graces and the effortless, masterly way she spins the web of a lie... Barrymore's role is the flashier of the two, and her cupcake looks give an innocence to Ivy's desperate seductions. She's grown into a very sexy, very interesting young actress. Gilbert, too, shows a marvelous subtlety, especially in capturing the rawness of Cooper's feelings. She's perfect at displaying the bitterness and paranoia -- the sense that everyone is out to get her -- that teenagers often feel... As Cooper's Percodan-gulping mother, Ladd doesn't have much screen time, but she makes this melancholy faded beauty seem almost ghostly in her suffering. It's a delicate, surprisingly moving performance. - Hal Hinson