So this is what a Charlie's Angels changing of the guard looks like... Poison Ivy is trash, not because it's a sex thriller, but because of its stunt casting. Both Drew Barrymore and Sara Gilbert seem to be in those to show they're not little girls anymore - with a side-order of comeback for Drew - but it's pretty timid, all things considered. Ivy is a cuckoo, inserting herself into a family's life and empathically becoming whatever each person needs - an understanding soul to the dying mother, a mid-life crisis receptacle to the dad, rebellion and catharsis for Gilbert - but she's not sinister or menacing, even in her darker moments. I think that evades Barrymore's acting skills here. Or perhaps it was never meant to be part of the recipe. There's a final reveal as to Ivy's intentions that's practically buried and should have been played up more, but it's like the movie's been edited by the right-wing dad so that Ivy more or less goes from one misdeed to the next with at best a Lolita complex. With a female writer and a female director, even if they did come from B-movies, this had a shot at a stronger female gaze. It's still perhaps better to look at it through that lens. No bonus points for the pretty impossible to spot blip of a role for Leonardo DiCaprio.
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Siskoid
So this is what a Charlie's Angels changing of the guard looks like... Poison Ivy is trash, not because it's a sex thriller, but because of its stunt casting. Both Drew Barrymore and Sara Gilbert seem to be in those to show they're not little girls anymore - with a side-order of comeback for Drew - but it's pretty timid, all things considered. Ivy is a cuckoo, inserting herself into a family's life and empathically becoming whatever each person needs - an understanding soul to the dying mother, a mid-life crisis receptacle to the dad, rebellion and catharsis for Gilbert - but she's not sinister or menacing, even in her darker moments. I think that evades Barrymore's acting skills here. Or perhaps it was never meant to be part of the recipe. There's a final reveal as to Ivy's intentions that's practically buried and should have been played up more, but it's like the movie's been edited by the right-wing dad so that Ivy more or less goes from one misdeed to the next with at best a Lolita complex. With a female writer and a female director, even if they did come from B-movies, this had a shot at a stronger female gaze. It's still perhaps better to look at it through that lens. No bonus points for the pretty impossible to spot blip of a role for Leonardo DiCaprio.