Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Angus T. Cat
As soon as I read the description of "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger" on the DVD box I wanted to rent the film. I've never seen an Australian movie about Jewish people; moreover, I've never come across very many accounts of Australian Jews. "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger" is unusual; while there are many films that reference Bar Mitzvahs, the coming of age ceremony for Jewish boys, I can't think of any other movie that features the Bat Mitzvah, the ceremony for girls. It's very quirky, like "1966", which portrays a British boy worrying about his upcoming Bar Mitzvah ceremony and party during the summer of that year, while England was hosting the World Cup. However, while "1966" presents the Bar Mitzvah boy and his parents and their friends as multilayered individuals, Esther and her friend Sonni are the most fully realised characters in "Esther Blueburger". Esther's parents are stereotypes of the upwardly mobile but distant mother and father. The audience doesn't discover why it's so important to them to send their children to private schools. After Esther's brother claims he's been suffering from anti-Semitism at his school, he's sent to a Jewish private school, but Esther isn't asked to attend the school as well. Perhaps it's an all boys school, but I would think they would also try to protect their daughter from prejudice and find a Jewish girls' school for her. At any rate, I found Esther's brother the most interesting of all the characters aside from the two female leads; his conversion from a number obsessed nerd bordering on violent weirdo to a devout praying stickler for ritual at the dining table is very funny. I loved how he insisted on saying a blessing at the dining table and made his father cover his head with a napkin: he reminded me of many of my Jewish friends I met at school growing up in Miami.The film would have benefited from further exploring what Judaism signifies to Esther and her family; aside from their accents, the relatives at the Bat/Bar Mitzvah party are straight out of central casting for any Bar Mitzvah sequence in a Hollywood movie. The story the father tells about the bread falling schmaltz side up feels authentic at first, but alas otherwise the Jewishness is portrayed as schmaltz -- or shtick, rather. So too is Esther's journey as she tries to truly become a woman. It felt like many films and made for TV movies about girls struggling to break away from their upbringing and find their identities as adults. I smiled at Esther customising her Bat Mitzvah dress, turning the yellow embroidered ruffles into a multi layered mini dress with a halter top, and covering her white high heels with red glitter. Her makeover doesn't go much further than cosmetic. I can't see how her Swedish act would win over the public school girls and her private school fellows so quickly. Her transformation seems like a fantasy she dreams up after being emotionally shattered by the brutality of her school and the girls her mother wants her to befriend: it comes too easily, and too painlessly, aside from her split from Sonni and the loss of Sonni's mother. I agree that the nightclub scenes are too gritty; surely Esther would love to dress up for clubbing and maybe take a swig of booze but at her age would find wandering the strip and giving boys oral sex way too frightening. I take the point that she scared Sonni by behaving coarsely, but that was suggested by Esther mugging her old school friend for her raincoat. I wish I could have just walked in another school and life so smoothly, without the school ever contacting my parents or challenging me about my absence. Furthermore, it's not clear why Sonni is sent to the Ladies College once in her relatives' care."Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger" is an entertaining movie about the passage from adolescence to young adulthood, and teenage girls would certainly find much in it that they could identify with. But it doesn't travel much further than the stages usually followed by films about young girls growing up. It's a shame, because the film has the potential to be an engrossing study of how Esther and her family find new ways of fulfilling themselves and engaging with their community.
Philby-3
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.
nobody
This was an excellent film, it was funny, sad, and at times dramatic, i loved this movie and Ester's little duck, i have the soundtrack and there isn't one song i don't like in it a truly great Australian film.I could relate to Esther as i am a social outcast (however i have never wanted to fit in) like Esther wants to. The storyline was a little predictable but i didn't really care as i just love the feel good ending.I enjoyed this movie and urge you to see it all the acting performances were excellent especially the first time actress Danielle Catanzariti who played Esther.Loved it all the way if you are wondering if you should see it or not. See it!
ncotwsd
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!
