...an often astonishingly sluggish piece of work that proves unable to capture the viewer’s interest right from the get-go...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 24, 2023

Poison Ivy provides a rare example of an adolescent role that seems grounded in the real desperation of adolescence.

| May 5, 2022

I love Poison Ivy-but of course I love Poison Ivy, because I love the color red, and I love lots of rain in a movie, and I love horny melodrama.

| Jan 20, 2022

The title credits hadn't finished rolling and I knew this was going to become a favorite movie of mine.

| Aug 13, 2021

By the time the climax approaches, ever so slowly, feeling as if hours longer than it is, the acting weakens and the revelations pale.

| Original Score: 2/10 | Sep 24, 2020

A risible thriller in which people must repeatedly do stupid things for the plot to lurch forward.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 24, 2019

| Original Score: C | Sep 7, 2011

Ambiguous and intriguing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 11, 2008

Offbeat and compelling neo-noir.

| Feb 11, 2008

Poison Ivy strikes a pleasing balance between emotion and ambiguity.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 11, 2008

Unfortunate thesps take it all very seriously, while technical aspects are emptily polished.

| Feb 11, 2008

Drew Barrymore stars in a melodrama that borders on high-class kiddie porn.

| Feb 11, 2008

Shea's arty-trashy exploitation film is an amalgam of Fatal Attraction, Stepfather, and Pasolini's Teorema, in all of which the order of a middle-class is disrupted by a depraved interloper, if only the script were better

| Original Score: C+ | Oct 9, 2006

Its willingness to take risks, and its insights into the frailties and confusions of teenage friendships, lift the film right out of the rut.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 14, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 7, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 22, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 14, 2003

Sinsiter and savvy psychodrama

| Jul 18, 2003