Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger

This is billed as a story about a young Jewish girl and her struggle for acceptance - i.e. the typical high school movie.

I had a favourable overall impression of the film. It was very cute in a lot of places, cringe-worthy in others, with a few moments of humour interjected. I found that there was authenticity in a lot of the small things that I could relate to from my own experiences - the uniform checks, the singing of the school song, how we made out with the boys.

But as another reviewer said, the vast majority of the characters in this film were caricatures of certain types: the uptight mother, the bitchy classmate, the fat kid who got picked on, the friend's mother who is the exact opposite of Esther's mother... a lot of it seemed very contrived and fake.

The opening of the film was rather brilliantly done; Esther watching upon the sheep-like choreography of her school classmates as they gathered for lunch. It kept at this high all through the first act; we could relate to Esther and her troubles - who else flushed with embarrassment as she approached the "popular" girls with invites to her bar mitzvah? I was especially impressed with how quickly Esther could get a story out or parrot off something she had heard earlier.

It was when she met Sunni after the bar mitzvah that things went slowly downhill, starting slow but rapidly spiralling towards the end of the film. My initial impression of Sunni is that she was in Year 12 - she certainly looked like it. So the resulting events of sneaking out of private school to attend class as a Swedish exchange student at the public school really jarred uncomfortably. I don't know of a girls-only public school anyway. It was ..a little too far fetched.

At this point, I lost all sympathy for Esther. As she parrots off sentences from other people, she began to parrot off attitudes of Sunni's friends. Beating up the fat kid for her raincoat was a real low. Kudos to the characterisation of Sunni to be equally disgusted at her actions.

I couldn't figure out the relevance of Sunni's mum's death or the blow job in the street. I didn't think it lent anything to the story at all. Sunni's appearance at the private school was equally unexplainable, as was the presence of her grandmother (?) and Esther's mother. Then Esther standing up to the crowd to say her poem, with the prefects and the teachers standing agape... I didn't get that either. That whole scene was too staged for my liking, as if they just needed something to show that Esther was going back to her likable, quirky self. Anti-climactic is what I would describe it. It soured the entire movie for me.

Esther Blueburger (Danielle Catanzariti) is thirteen. She's from a Jewish family and attends a private school where she's an outsider. Her classmates cartwheel, dance and eat with geometric precision, while the victimised Esther spends her lunchtimes watching them from the confines of an upper-storey classroom.

Esther crosses paths with Sonni (Keisha Castle-Hughes), an offbeat teen who attends a neighbouring State school. A friendship develops and it's not long before Esther decides to enrol at Sonni's school, without her parents knowing. There she enjoys a newfound popularity and very quickly uses it to victimise other outsiders. This doesn't impress Sonni one bit.

The awkwardly-titled HEY HEY IT'S ESTHER BLUEBURGER sits uncomfortably between a Saturday morning children's television show and a more intense, coming-of-age drama. The supporting characters, like Esther's gullible parents, teachers and peers are caricatures, which is quite alright as they represent real people with which we're familiar. Esther's change of schools is far too easy for her. While many obvious questions about this are left unaddressed, we're willing to accept it because we understand this approach to story telling.

But when Esther tries to prove her worth by fellating a boy in a dark alley one night, it just doesn't gel with what's gone before. It feels as though the screenplay needed some toughening up and the writer responded by throwing in this seriously out-of-place scene. And surely someone must have pointed out at the script stage that this would severely restrict the film's target audience, the tweens. (Footnote: Does anyone remember an equally unnecessary fellatio scene in Michael Thornhill's BETWEEN WARS (1974)?)

Esther loses her appeal as the film progresses and we really don't care for her at all by the end. Yes, teenage years are confusing times but her use of her new popularity to belittle others makes her unlikeable. The rift between Esther and Sonni is of Esther's making. And the friendship between the two isn't explored anywhere near as well as it could have been. Neither is the difference between private and State schools. Neither is Esther's religion. The sad tale of Esther's duck, however, is most effective.

Toni Collette appears briefly as Sonni's "cool" biker Mum. But the situation involving her character at the film's end is also gravely misplaced. So too is the final school assembly scene but by this stage, anything goes.

HEY HEY IT'S ESTHER BLUEBURGER is the work of first-time writer/director Cathy Randall and first-time producer Miriam Stein. It shows. Comparisons to THE BLACK BALLOON, another recently released, coming-of-age Australian film are to be expected. THE BLACK BALLOON is vastly superior because its screenwriters have a much keener sense of character construction and plot development.

HEY HEY IT'S ESTHER BLUEBURGER has some interesting things to say but it's unsure just how to say them. And I'm tired of films where the story continues as the credits roll. It's a sign of indecisiveness. Do we really need to hear about Esther's braces being removed? Maybe it makes a difference to the next boy she blows in a back alley.

Hey Hey it's Esther Blueburger is a cool flick telling the story of a young teenage girl's attempts to fit in. Esther, played wonderfully by the pixie like Danielle Cantanzariti, is trapped in a life of non-recognition by an idiosyncratic family and the lonely side of classic school yard tribal exclusion that everyone has experienced.

After befriending local girl Sunni, (Keisha Castle Hughes of Whale Rider fame), Blueburger begins a double life that is both laugh out loud funny and touching as she looks for her place in the world.

I saw Danielle & Keisha at the Sydney premiere and they are even cuter in person than on film. Danielle, although diminutive in size, projects large on screen & Keisha has a certain star power, especially on camera, which is undeniable. It's amazing that both Keisha (in Whale Rider) and Danielle in 'Esther' have been plucked from obscurity to give such fantastic debut performances especially seeing as both were in their early teens at the time. They are supported ably by their on screen parents (Essie Davis & Russell Dykstra) and Sunni's mum, Toni Colette who plays a character which is the anti-thesis of Esther's 'normal' parents, a source of fascination & enchantment for Esther.

There's something about wanting to be in with the cool kids and the lengths we go to to do that that we all recognise. It's part of growing up and becoming the person you are. That's what makes this film funny, beautiful, and sad at the same time.

This is an excellent film by first time writer & director Cathy Randall & I loved it. It's great to see talented writers and film-makers in Australia being given a chance & supported in an industry where much talent goes unnoticed and is usually substituted for 'celebrity'. It's definitely one of the better films to come out of Australia in recent years. Do yourself a favour and see this film. It's definitely not 'normal'!

Esther Blueburger's (Danielle Catanzariti) quest begins when she escapes from her Bar Mitzvah party and is befriended by Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes), the effortlessly cool girl who is everything Esther thinks she wants to be. With the help of Sunni, Esther goes AWOL from her ordinary life and leaves behind her malfunctioning Jewish family to hang out with Sunni's far breezier and super-hip single mum Mary (Toni Collette) and attend Sunni's forbidden public school as a Swedish exchange student.

Finally, here is an intelligent film for teenage girls! This film manages to be funny and uplifting while exploring some more serious themes, of family and peer relationships. The scriptwriter and director, Cathy Randall, and the star, Danielle Catanzariti are new talents and people to watch in the next generation of Australian film. Congratulations to all involved!

This film could be described as the Jewish slapstick comic version of "Looking for Alibrandi", the archetypal Australian girl growing up story. Esther, a tiny but bright 14 year old Jewish girl, is shunned by the other girls at her posh Adelaide school. Sunni, a girl from the nearby state school, takes her under her wing, as it were, and Esther starts attending Sunni's school unofficially as a Swedish exchange student. Plenty of pratfalls follow, but the story turns serious towards the finish.

Danielle Catanzareti is brilliant as Esther and just about carries the film. Keisha Castel-Hughes is convincing as Sunni, as is Essi Davis as Ester's mother Grace (who seems to be channeling Bree from "Desperate Housewives" right down to her dress sense.) Tony Collette, in her brief appearance as Sunni's striptease artist mother, is OK but seems to be in the wrong movie, and the other girls at St Posh are, like the girls of St Trinians, too old and too depraved to be authentic.

About half-way through Esther and her pals go nightclubbing. There are a couple of problems with this. First, no bouncer would let someone of Esther's size and youth in to a strip club, even in Adelaide. Second, Esther giving head to a teenage boy who is no more than an acquaintance, in a dingy alleyway as her friends look on, while it fits in with her attempts to be accepted, proved a bit much for some of the audience with 10-12 year old children who walked out at that stage (the film is rated "M" in Australia). This is a pity because otherwise the film is suitable for kids of about 10 years and up.

There are some good comic moments, such as the massed choir of the posh school singing a heavily over-written version of the Yardbirds' "House of the Rising Sun", Esther and her geek brother Jacob's send-up of genteel family dining, and the "Esther cam" view of the Bar-Mitzvah reception. There is also a "magic realism" element which emerges occasionally such as when we are told about the school's tribes. But the ending is a bit unsatisfactory. One again a first-time writer –director has been let loose with some taxpayer's money and the result is an interesting but patchy piece. There is imagination at work here and freshness, but the film doesn't draw the viewer in the way "Looking for Alibrandi" did.