Watch Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger For Free

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Don't Believe the Hype

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

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

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.

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!

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'!