Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger

A coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old girl trying to fit into both a posh private school and an ordinary public school.

• Director:Cathy Randall
• Genre:Comedy | Drama
• Tagline:Sometimes to fit in you need to stand out.
• Runtime:103 min

Cast

Danielle Catanzariti : Esther Blueburger
Cassandra Jinman : The Slug
Talia Monaghan : Missy / Ribbon 1
Yen Yen Stender : Lissy / Ribbon 2
Laura Kettle : Demi / Ribbon 3

Esther Blueburger is a 13-year-old Jewish outcast at her posh private school. Things are no better at home, where her twin brother is beginning to develop into a sociopath and her controlling mother pressures Esther to conform. She finds her only friend in a duck called Normal, and she frequently prays into a toilet asking God to “get me out of here”. After escaping her own Bat Mitzvah, Esther bumps into Sunni, a rebellious girl from the local public school.

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 and giving fellatio to a boy – her friendship with Sunni crumbles. 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. Deciding that being herself is more important than fitting in, Esther discards her pretenses and befriends Sunni again. Read more