In this welcome female-helmed and co-written indie entry it’s the female characters who drive the action. Loner high-school student Sara Gilbert befriends devil-may-care teen Drew Barrymore, who proceeds to take up residence in her new friend’s home, brown-nosing ailing mom Cheryl Ladd and bewitching pliable dad Tom Skerritt. In the title role, Barrymore leaves her child-star image in the dust; as the poster tagline says, “What Ivy wants, Ivy gets.”

Print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive