Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger

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 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!

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.

This movie was brilliant! I think what deterred some of the other reviewers here was that they thought it was a children's movie. While it does have 13 year-old girls as the centre characters, trying to fit in and grow up in and out of their school lives, it is definitely not for children.

Believe it or not, I found peculiar things like social-economics to be key parts, as the difference between Sunni and Esther is never looked at directly, but determines Sunni's character and her upset with Esther. It also looks at different types of friendships, family religion and the way we lash out at people for trivial things like *we* having hurt *them*.

I didn't realise it was one of those movies that you either love or hate, but perhaps it is. A must-see, though if you're expecting a light-hearted comedy simply about fitting in, you'll be surprised - it goes into so much more depth than that

A sweet coming of age film from Australia, filmed entirely on set in Adelaide.

Toni Collette was unexpectedly beautiful with minimal makeup "on stage". She usually seems to (last example was her exemplary performances on the acclaimed series, United States of Tara (2009-2011))- but must have especially had fun in this role.

Many strange occurrences left unexplained and things presented as if this is the way it always has been. Also needed more background and backstory; one thing I really wish they explained because it could have made a spectacular side story is what have her the inspiration for her Blueburger "name poem introduction". After all, if it really was merely fumbling in her mind to fill in the blanks, how could she have received it a second time during the penultimate scene in front of the entire school, nearly identically? There was no poster is the room, flashback, etcetera, like there usually would be, inserted during its creation.

Unfortunately, there was an overall inability to consistently hold an audience's interest. Unevenly edited. Many characters were archetypal, cliches, or, frankly, unrealistic caricatures surprisedly representing your equivalent to the high school crowd.

This film did have some excellent musical choices; even mix of classical-including choir and religious- and modern pop to rock with meaningful lyrics. Predictable coming of age story, with the typical be true to who you are, fitting in, struggling to decide who your friends are, learning that being popular is not all there is in life, loyalty to worthwhile family members and true friends. Stand out exploration of early mental health and having to deal with grieving.

Lead actress Danielle Catanzariti was chosen in an open audition for this debut role, bolstered by genuine performances by Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider fame) and veteran actress Toni Collette.

There are a limited number of decent Australian films easily available in America and this was a pleasure to watch, even though- not quite there in a couple qualities- it packed what it took to be an amazing film.