Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger (2000)

Directed by: Cathy Randall | 103 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Nikita Adams, Tisha Adey, Paul Blackwell, Christian Byers, Lucy Carey, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Danielle Catanzarit, Elise Champion, Toni Collette, Essie Davis, Alex DeGaris-Boot, Vanessa Downing, Russell Dykstra, Patrick Frost, Daniela Ganter , Mark Gaweda, Edwin Hodgeman, Cassandra Jinman, Joey Kennedy, Laura Kettle, Tony Mack, Caitlin McDougall, Leticia Monaghan, Talia Monaghan, Jonny Pasvolsky, Lyn Pike, Esme Proudman, Deidre Rubenstein, Jonathan Segat, Yen Yen Stender, Bridget Walters, Ling Yeow

If you don’t belong as a teenager, then you have a big problem. At least that’s what the outcasts themselves think. Esther Blueburger (Danielle Catanzariti) is one of those out of place girls, and it’s not just because of her quirky name. She’s thirteen years old and that means she’s about to celebrate her bat-mitzvah. According to Jewish tradition, you are then a real woman. But that’s not how Esther feels. At her school – an ultra-conformist private school for girls – she is bullied for not looking cool enough. She also has rather strange habits; that’s how she gets through her lonely lunch breaks talking to God through the toilet bowl. That is, of course, asking for trouble… Things aren’t much better at home. Her twin brother Jacob (Christian Byers) has even weirder habits than her. She cannot talk to her parents. She has major problems especially with her mother (Essie Davis), who is an extremely perfectionist. The only one who seems to understand her is the young duck Normal, whom she keeps as a pet.

Then, on the way home from school, Esther meets the tough Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes). She attends a ‘normal’ school near Esther’s and also has a very relaxed and frivolous mother, Mary (Toni Collette). Sunni and Esther befriend and come up with a bright plan to secretly change Esther’s school. She borrows a school uniform from Sunni, which she quickly changes before going home. Her parents don’t even notice. At her own school she says she is going to Sweden for an exchange. Thanks to her friendship with Sunni, Esther is immediately included in the group. Finally she knows what it feels like to be cool! But in her desperation to be liked and liked, she goes one step too far. Previously she was the one who was bullied, now she presents herself as the big bogeyman. Moreover, she allows herself to be instigated by others to do things that she actually does not want to do, much to the dismay of Sunni, who also lets her know that her behavior is jeopardizing their friendship.

‘Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger’ (2008) is a film by debutante Cathy Randall, who not only took the director’s chair but also wrote the script. Producer Miriam Stein is also a newcomer to the film world. Their tragicomedy is on the one hand very recognizable – everyone has felt like an outsider at some point, especially in their teens. On the other hand, this coming-of-age film has its bizarre features. Just take Jacob Blueburger and his terrifying hobbies. The characters are eccentric and hardly sympathetic, no matter how well they are portrayed by the mostly youthful actors. Moreover, ‘Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger’ lacks balance. In the first part, Esther’s experiences are still innocent and cute, while in the middle part she goes too far in her urge to prove herself. This section is also marred by a misplaced scene in which Esther physically indulges in a (male) classmate in a back street. Not exactly what you expect in a film that mainly focuses on ten to thirteen year olds… The final chord is an excess of melodrama and hardly connects to the preceding one.

Newcomer Danielle Catanzariti – chosen out of a group of three thousand girls to play the lead role – shows a rather convincing portrait of a young girl in her early adolescence. She has to deal with bullying, peer pressure, a family that does not function at all and her first introduction to sexuality. These are all things that the average teenager has to deal with, although things are of course slightly different with Esther. The young Catanzariti is joined by bigger stars such as Keisha Castle Hughes (despite her young age quite experienced), who already earned an Oscar nomination at the age of 13 for her role in ‘Whale Rider’ (2004) and Toni Collette (of ‘The Sixth Sense’, 2000 and ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, 2007). Essie Davis and Russell Dykstra, who play Esther’s insufferable parents, have also put together a nice body of work. Still, the acting isn’t overwhelming. But that depends on the script, which does not convince. Camera work and score are fresh and colorful and are a valuable addition to the print.

For a debut, ‘Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger’ isn’t bad at all. The film looks bright and colorful and the themes mentioned will sound familiar to anyone who has ever gone through adolescence and anyone who is about to enter that stage of life. So the set-up is nice and nice and the film is certainly entertaining, but when it comes to the execution, Cathy Randall drops a lot of stitches. The film lacks a straightforward tone, which is largely due to the lack of a solid script. And that lack of balance eventually breaks up this print. For Cathy Randall, it’s important to learn from the mistakes she made here so she won’t make them in her next films.