Nothing can really do justice within the normal vocabulary to describe this in any constructive way. Just watch it and marvel at what is possible within animation, and how a story can be told without a single moment wasted in dullness. There is really no beginning, no ending and no middle, the structure is left completely open and without any real story telling, just moments unfolding for a period in time and then closing credits when they should not really be. This can be watched again and again, and always something else appears as if put there , when last time it was hidden. Some language here and there, but not too offensive. I think that aside, even a child could possibly be captured by the weirdness of every scene and complete randomness of the persons features. Go watch it and come back and tell us all what you think.....

Upon seeing that this was playing at the Music Box, I had enough curiosity to go view it with my father. I was totally unprepared for what I was about to watch.

The story is apparently attempting to be very stylish as to fit with its artsy theme, and it does deliver quite a bit on its action and development of its devices. From Ruben's relationship with each painting to the paintings themselves, it does play into the titular character's insanity quite well. At the end of the day, though, I really felt like something big was missing from it. As for the characters, Ruben experiences virtually all the strange things in this movie as part of his psychiatric journey into personal exorcism, the main focus of the plot. We have his henchmen (including Mimi), who provide great action and sometimes humor but are relatively hollow otherwise. They happen to be the principal characters, and the others aren't really worth mentioning as to not spoil your experience with this movie. Easily the best aspect of this movie is its animation; the unique design for its characters and the twists it employs on real art really do bring out Milorad's intent to make this movie as surreal as possible. The character animation makes the action engaging and makes it seem like there are legitimate stakes. The backgrounds capture the necessary feel of each location, from the calm of art museums to the secluded alleys of Paris.

This is a bewildering film, but it's not for families on account of its violence, language, and nudity. For those who love art, this movie will probably be one you would enjoy, but I wouldn't be surprised if you left with some level of disappointment. I really felt, again, like something big was missing from it. So while I don't think this movie is overall even close to bad, I wouldn't recommend it to the common film viewer.

It is obvious that director Milorad Krstic likes to pay extra attention to details, loves animating the underside of cars, locomotives, and motorcycles, and has a weird penchant for absurdity for his Ruben Brandt, Collector would not have been a mixture of all these things and some more. Narrating the ingenious story of a loner psychotherapist who involuntarily hires a group of four criminals to steal popular paintings from around the world so that he can finally stop having those ugly nightmares that ARE about those paintings, director Krstic starts his animated drama with bang, bang, and nothing but bang. It starts at something and frequently digresses to a frame or a character that has absolutely no relation to the main plot, and that is exactly how the film pulls you in. With beautiful, beautiful things to look at and pop culture references about everything from Radiohead's "Creep" to Francis Ford Coppola's gangster epic The Godfather (1972) to Edward Hopper's 1942 painting Nighthawks, Rubern Brandt, Collector is a whirlpool of random events, dark comedy, and quotable general moments that you will find yourself so immersed in that you will stop having issues with how the characters look. Absurd, abnormal, and abominable - it is from these three elements that director Krstic churns out this epic adventure of a film, which, despite its overlong and ridiculous story arcs, makes for a great watch, at least from a perspective where it improves your pop culture knowledge by some great extent. It is nothing like you have seen in the animation or non-animation territory before. But don't take your kids along. TN.

(Watched and reviewed at its India premiere at the 20th MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.)