Poison Ivy

Richard2.0

I can't believe that Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't nominated for an Academy Award for his stunning portrayal of "Guy" in this beautiful and heartbreaking motion picture!

ellie2.5

this went from gay, to daddy issues, to insane all in the span of 88 minutes.

nathaxnne [goodbye <3]2.5

Poison Ivy is a classic example of the 90's movie wherein a main character is presented solely as a manifestation of all of the other characters' repressed desires, having no other motivation or independent being except to liberate/corrupt/endanger. What Poison Ivy is most importantly missing (at least for me) is a microfiche-scanning library scene where said character is revealed as having a long-term sociopathic/psychiatric history so that we understand that Repressed Characters are in Big Trouble. Lacking even a poorly articulated mental-illness/trauma backfill, Poison Ivy is ever more Slvt-Shaming: The Movie and leaves a bad aftertaste of Good Girls Don't. Poison Ivy is a film afraid and ashamed of its own inherent trashiness and sleaze, unwilling to commit to liking its inhabitants or just going for it, a quality critical to the success of these kinds of films. Internal dissociation allows the experiences of 'forbidden desire' while also thinking it is gross and that you are not a person who would think, want, or do such things and that it is good that one is never actually tempted with such because necessarily powerless to stop the avalanche of bad which would surely follow. Tedious and hypocritical, the only desire Poison Ivy has confirmed for me is that I really need some tie-dye skirts and dresses because yes.