8/12 ForReel Score | 3/5 Stars

The idea of inanimate objects becoming sentient has always been a subject of interest for me. When I was a child, my eyes would light up watching the cowboy and astronaut morph from inanimate action figures to formidable adventures. The idea of my toys coming to life when I left the room influenced a new form of tenderness. I began to treat all my possessions with a softer, more gentle hand. For them to feel discomfort or pain due to mistreatment by my hand was far too overwhelming of a thought. These behaviours have stayed with me throughout my life, so has the interest in everyday items finding consciousness. When films about homicidal tires or cursed red dress entered my atmosphere there was that same childlike obsession. Writer/director Amanda Kramer’s latest film explores a completely new take on the genre. By Design finds itself somewhere in the middle between a body swap comedy and a campy romance.

Camille (Juliette Lewis, Natural Born Killers) is a step away from being invisible. Every week she goes to lunch with her friends with joyous hopes of indulginging in edifying conversation and expanding their knowledge, yet it’s always the same. Devoid of ideas. Camille is forced to act as a sounding board for entitled women to bounce their nonsense off of. Following lunch the women go window shopping at a gallery filled with a diverse selection of chairs. One chair in particular catches Camille’s eye and she becomes utterly transfixed. There is a poetic draw to the chair, like it has summoned not just her attention, but an undying need to possess it. When denied the opportunity to buy the chair, she switches souls with it. As an object, she is finally able to obtain the desire of others.

The production design and costuming take the film outside of space and time. The sets feel like they could be wheeled out on a Broadway stage. Windows frame 2D cityscape paintings. The characters are always wrapped in bright colors or abstract patterns. Kramer’s surrealist vision is not surprising due to her background in theater and previous work as a vintage clothing buyer. From the dingy alleys to the sparse apartments, everything on screen is placed with such purpose. As Camille’s body lay lifeless, still inhabited by the soul of the chair surrounded by shoes, it looks reminiscent of Nan Goldin or Harmony Korine. Everything is staged with such purpose, to draw the eye around the image but ultimately land where Kramer has demanded focus.

On the surface, the film can be interpreted as this ironic examination of today’s consumerism culture or the pitfalls of craving the validation of others. Yet I feel an analysis that simple invalidates much of the film’s artistic form. By Design comes across as Lynchian in the way it’s meant to be felt more than understood. (When the women dance around the chair it reminded me of Inland Empire, which may have been purposeful or my brain is just making the connection because I watched the film not too long ago). In my opinion, Kramer’s goal with the film is less so for audiences to examine the narrative beat for beat and more so to invoke their senses. It’s about the fantasy. Kramer seems to have crafted a film on intuition and instinct, and less so with a singular vision on the critique of consumption and desire. Throughout the film I kept thinking how it would work better as experimental theater or as a gallery piece. One to view in a museum, tucked away in a dark room you enter out of curiosity. The oddity of it all is transfixing, but feels out of place in its current form.

By Design’s most successful feat is its depiction of adult female friendships. It highlights the women’s competitive infighting and misplaced animosity they hold for one another. Camille lives by a quote, “resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die”. She sees her friend’s petty problems at a distance, almost like an alien. Always on the outside. Camille verbalizes that she is not like most women. She doesn’t get jealous and she wants everyone to be happy. Robin Tunney (The Craft) and Samantha Mathis (American Pastoral) play well into the stereotypes of the vapid housewives. Even when they agree to help Camille it seems more like a chore than a genuine act of service. Anytime the film would stray out of my reach the performance would draw me back in.

The work is undoubtedly an Amanda Kramer film. Fans of her previous films like Please Baby Please and Give Me Pity! will most likely resonate with her work more than new viewers. By Design is for the eccentric, made to amuse those who melt when they hear Melanie Griffith’s aloof voice narrate Camille’s inner world. Or for the ones who joyously laugh as Sophie Von Haselberg crawl on all four in the middle of the street while half dressed models sit on her until she collapses. Kramer’s experimental style may not be for everyone, but neither is every chair. This one is particularly and exquisitely made, and like how Camille was drawn to a chair the moment she saw it, the right audiences will also be drawn to By Design.

Sundance 2025 | Movie Review: "By Design" Is Quirky, Eccentric, And Crafted For The Right Audiences To Be Drawn To