Boasting batshit surreal imagery, fist-pumping action sequences and a wall-to-wall shrine of art and cinema references, Ruben Brandt, Collector is a new milestone for animated invention.
A voluptuously trippy, wildly original art-theft romp... Defies easy categorization save inclusion on any adult animation fan’s must-see list.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2019
Ruben Brandt, Collector 2018
Ruben Brandt, a gyűjtő
Art heist thriller, brooding neo-noir, bombastic action blockbuster and hallucinatory freak-out all at once, Milorad Krstić’s dazzling, dizzying curiosity Ruben Brandt, Collector marks a welcome escalation for modern animation. After suffering repeat nightmares in which paintings by Warhol, Botticelli, Manet and Hopper (to name just a few) transform into malignant apparitions that attack him, renowned psychotherapist Ruben Brandt decides to undergo a unique method of self-treatment: stealing every painting that is afflicting him. The wild ride that follows is about as innovative, hypnotic and flat-out entertaining as animation for adults will get. — JF
“There are no unintentional strokes on Milorad Krstić’s moving canvas Ruben Brandt, Collector, a 2D animated feature so densely ornate with auteur-adoring references and eye-popping design, a single viewing would only serve as an insufficient introduction to its bona fide one-of-a-kind panache… Unbounded from all conventions of reality, shapes and colors roam free to form characters with a varying number of eyes, flat bodies, sharp-edged faces, and a potpourri of distorted features in unnatural shades…
[It’s] a glorious cinephile’s playlist and a graphic syllabus on art history encased in a thriller. As such, it merits being counted as one of the decade’s best and most wildly original animated triumphs and one of this awards season’s most unforgivable snubs. Time, the most reliable judge when it comes to art, will give Milorad Krstić his due praise.” — Carlos Aguilar, The Playlist