Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger

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Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
Buena Vista International
)
Release dates
  • 9 February 2008 (2008-02-09) (Berlin)
  • 20 March 2008 (2008-03-20) (Australia)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$6 million
Box officeA$863,950

Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger is a 2008 Australian

Jewish 13-year-old Esther (Catanzariti), an outcast at her posh
school, where she has no friends. That changes when she meets nonconformist Sunni (Castle-Hughes) from the local public school.

With Esther's character based loosely on her own adolescence, Randall was inspired to write the film's script by what she saw as a lack of role models for teenage girls. In 2002, the script earned her a fellowship to the

Sydney, New South Wales
.

The film premiered on 9 February 2008 at the Berlin International Film Festival and was released in Australia on 20 March 2008. It failed to earn back its A$6 million budget with a total domestic gross of approximately $800,000. The film attracted mixed reviews; some critics praised the originality and the acting, though others found Randall's direction dull and the script poorly written. Catanzariti won the Australian Film Institute's Young Actor Award for her performance, and the film received a further three AFI nominations and a nomination for a Film Critics Circle of Australia Award.

Plot

Esther Blueburger is a 13-year-old

Bat Mitzvah
, Esther bumps into Sunni, a rebellious girl from the local public school, who she had observed and spoken to on previous occasions.

The two girls form a friendship, and Esther begins attending Sunni's school, unbeknownst to her parents, under the guise of a Swedish exchange student. She revels in the easygoing nature of the public school and enjoys spending time with Sunni's friends and Sunni's laid-back single mother, Mary, who works as a stripper. As Esther gains popularity and submits to numerous acts of peer pressure – including attacking a girl from her old school – her friendship with Sunni starts to deteriorate. At her old school, meanwhile, her classmates have been led to believe that she was chosen for an elite social experiment, and when she returns she is treated like royalty.

Esther later discovers that Mary has died in a motorcycle accident, and a grieving Sunni is transferred to Esther's private school under her grandmother's care. Ultimately deciding that being true to herself is more important than fitting in, Esther discards her pretenses and renews her friendship with Sunni.

Cast

Production

Development

Cathy Randall's script for Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger stemmed from her desire "to make a film about a kick-ass chick, a heroine for teenagers and people of all ages", wanting to take a female twist on The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield.[2] She said that she had "always been struck by the fact that there are not enough role models for teenage girls".[2] Esther's character was drawn loosely from Randall's own adolescence; like Esther, she had a Bat Mitzvah, she had a twin brother and she attended both a private and a public school.[3] She explained, however, that the story was "warped and twisted and filtered through my imagination so, in fact, it doesn't feel like Esther resembles me at all".[3]

Based on her original script, Randall was awarded a fellowship to the

Buena Vista International to handle distribution in Australia and New Zealand.[2]

Casting

To cast the title character, the film's producers worked with a

Hebrew to prepare for her Bar Mitzvah scenes.[2]

Keisha Castle-Hughes was Randall's first choice for the role of Sunni based on her performance in the New Zealand film Whale Rider (2002). Castle-Hughes agreed to star in the film when she first read the script at age 13, but was 16 by the time finance had been raised and filming began.[8][9] Castle-Hughes' pregnancy was announced shortly before production was scheduled to begin but filming went ahead unaffected.[9] Toni Collette was confirmed to have joined the cast in May 2006;[10] her scenes were filmed over one week.[11]

Filming

Filming took place from 30 October to 15 December 2006.

Sydney, New South Wales,[10] with financial incentives from the South Australian Film Corporation.[4] Specific filming locations included Annesley College, St Peter's College as Esther's school and Marryatville High School as Sunni's school.[2]

Soundtrack

Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger: Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
Released14 March 2008 (2008-03-14)
LabelCapitol Music Group

The film's opening song and recurring theme, "The Only One" was composed by Paul Mac and recorded by Mac, Bertie Blackman and the Sydney Children's Choir. The Sydney Children's Choir's contributions to the soundtrack were Randall's own idea, inspired by the children's chorus covers from The Langley Schools Music Project. The original score was composed by Guy Gross.[2]

Track listing

  1. "The Only One" – Paul Mac (featuring Bertie Blackman)
  2. "Don't You Think It's Time" – Bob Evans
  3. "I Melt with You" – Sydney Children's Choir
  4. "Ribbons" – Guy Gross
  5. "The Wrong Girls" – Missy Higgins
  6. "Bar Mitzvah Prep" – Guy Gross
  7. "Clapping Song" – Operator Please
  8. "Be a Woman" – Persian Rugs
  9. "Lucky Lipstick" – Surferosa
  10. "The Only One (Duck Dissection)" – Paul Mac (featuring the Sydney Children's Choir)
  11. "Esther on Stage" – Guy Gross
  12. "6/8" – Operator Please
  13. "Duck Walk" – Guy Gross
  14. "Sometimes" – Danielle Catanzariti and the Sydney Children's Choir
  15. "Long Live the Girls" – Sara Storer
  16. "Young Folks" – Chasing Bailey
  17. "Strange Little Girl" – Sydney Children's Choir
  18. "Liar" – Bob Evans
  19. "The Only One (Toy Piano)" – Paul Mac
  20. "Bar Mitzvah Meldey Hora" – Ilan Kidron and Glass

Release

Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger had its world premiere at the

Boston Jewish Film Festival[19] and the Stockholm International Film Festival.[20]

The film earned A$393,000 from 134 locations on its opening week at the box office.

Office of Film and Literature Classification although the film was targeted at preteens and teenagers.[24]

Reception

Critical reaction

Film industry magazine

At the Movies each gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5. Stratton enjoyed the "terrific" performances, namely from Catanzariti and Keisha Castle-Hughes, while Pomeranz praised the film's "eccentricity" and the discomfort caused to the audience at times.[28]

Other critics were less positive. The Herald Sun's head reviewer Leigh Paatsch gave the film no stars, claiming the film tried to match the edginess of the 2007 comedy film Juno but was, "way, way off the mark". He wrote, "If you think the title screams 'Go watch something else', just wait until you get a load of this lame local production."[29] Jim Schembri of The Age opined that the film was an example of "just how bad local [Australian] films can get". In particular, he criticised the "stiff" performances, the "woeful" directing and the plot's implausibility.[30] Variety magazine's Richard Kuipers wrote that the film was "sporadically amusing" and lacked "scripting smarts and pulling power across demographics". He praised the soundtrack and Castle-Hughes' portrayal of Sunni, but felt that the film was brought down by dull cinematography and "uninspired dialogue and direction".[24] Bernadette McNulty of The Daily Telegraph noted that the film's greatest downfall was that "the jokes aren't funny enough and the sadness barely breaks your heart". She complimented Toni Collette's performance but felt that "her slight role is insufficient to make it fly the distance".[31] Luke Goodsell, writing for Empire magazine, awarded the film 2 out of 5 stars and deemed it to be deserving of "an all-purpose warning label to stay the Hell away".[32]

Awards and nominations

Danielle Catanzariti won the

AFI Award nominations for Best Screenplay – Original (Cathy Randall), Best Costume Design (Shareen Beringer) and Best Sound (Liam Egan, Tony Murtagh, Phil Judd and Des Keneally).[34] Catanzariti was nominated by the Film Critics Circle of Australia for the FCCA Best Actress Award.[35] Randall won an award for directing at the Hamburg Filmfest Michel Children's and Youth Film Festival.[14]

Box office

Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger grossed $863,950 at the box office in Australia.[36]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger (2008)". Oz Movies. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger" (PDF) (Press release). Tama Films. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 October 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d Starkman, Susan (22 April 2009). "An Interview with Cathy Randall, writer/director of Hey Hey It's Esther Blueberger". Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d Carrigy, Megan (June–July 2008). "Teen Vision". RealTime. Archived from the original on 12 October 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  5. ^ a b Hornery, Andrew (9 June 2006). "Hey, hey, it's starstruck teens day". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  6. BigPond Movies. Archived from the original
    on 24 October 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  7. ^ "Interview: Danielle Catanzariti from Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger". Dolly. 12 March 2008. Archived from the original on 4 March 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  8. ^ Flynn, Gaynor. "U2 in all dimensions". TheBlurb.com.au. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  9. ^ a b c "Keisha's pregnancy will have 'no impact' on filming". The New Zealand Herald. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  10. ^ a b "Collette sez 'Hey' to pic". Variety. 8 May 2006. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  11. ^ a b Fenton, Andrew (10 January 2008). "Danielle Catanzariti prepares to play big". Herald Sun. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  12. ^ "Berlin Screening Guide: Sat, Feb 9". 7 February 2008. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Movie industry descends on Dungog". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  14. ^ a b "Awards and award-winners at the 16th Filmfest Hamburg". Hamburg Filmfest. 2 October 2009. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  15. ^ McCarthy, Ellen (30 November 2007). "Jewish Film Festival: Quality and Quantity". The Washington Post.
  16. ^ Van Niekerk, Piet (9 March 2009). "London Australian Film Festival Programme". TNT. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  17. ^ "2009 Film Selections". Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival. 2009. Archived from the original on 25 September 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  18. ^ Fox, Michael (9 July 2009). "Hey, hey, it's a comedy for Jewish Film Festival opener". JWeekly.com. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  19. ^ "Boston Jewish Film Festival Catalog" (PDF). Boston Jewish Film Festival. 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009. [dead link]
  20. ^ "Hey Hey Its Esther Blueburger". Stockholm International Film Festival (StockholmFilmFestival.se). 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.[permanent dead link]
  21. Greater Union. Archived from the original
    on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  22. ^ de Bruyn, Simon (2 April 2008). "Balloon battles Blueburger for box office". Inside Film. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  23. ^ "2008 Box Office Backgrounder" (PDF) (Press release). Screen Australia. January 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 December 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  24. ^ a b Kuipers, Richard (26 March 2008). "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger (Australia)". Variety. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  25. ^ Brunette, Peter (29 February 2008). "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger". Screen International (1634): 20.
  26. ^ Wilson, Jake (20 March 2008). "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger". The Age. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  27. ^ Hall, Sandra (21 March 2008). "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  28. At the Movies. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
    . Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  29. ^ Bolt, Andrew (28 March 2008). "Screen turkeys deserve roast". Herald Sun. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  30. ^ Schembri, Jim (29 March 2008). "Just when you thought Australian films couldn't get any worse..." The Age. Archived from the original on 3 January 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  31. ^ McNulty, Bernadette (28 July 2009). "DVD review: Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  32. ^ Goodsell, Luke (March 2008). "Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger". Empire Australia. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  33. ^ "Hey, hey it's the AFI young actor Danielle Catanzariti". Herald Sun. 6 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  34. Screen Daily
    . Retrieved 15 December 2009.
  35. Encore. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help
    )
  36. ^ Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office Archived 18 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine

External links

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