By Design: Amanda Kramer's Surreal Furniture Fantasy Defies All Logic
Hold onto your seats, because Amanda Kramer has delivered easily the weirdest film at Sundance this year, and honestly? We're absolutely here for it. By Design is pure experimental madness - a surreal body-swap comedy about a woman who becomes so obsessed with a designer chair that her soul literally swaps with it. It's bonkers, it's brilliant, and it's exactly the kind of audacious filmmaking that makes us fall in love with cinema all over again.
Juliette Lewis commits fully to this bizarre premise as Camille, a woman who feels invisible among her shallow friends until she discovers the transformative power of being a piece of furniture. While some might find Lewis's performance somewhat stilted, that's entirely intentional - Kramer's experimental approach requires a specific kind of theatrical delivery that Lewis embraces with complete dedication.
The real revelation here is Mamoudou Athie as Olivier, the piano player who becomes obsessed with the chair containing Camille's soul. Athie finds lithe sensuality in his movement, creating heartbreakingly complex intimacy with an inanimate object. His performance elevates the entire production, demonstrating how a truly committed actor can make even the most ridiculous premise feel emotionally authentic.
Cinematographer Patrick Meade Jones creates a visual feast that feels like David Lynch directing a Broadway musical. The production design makes every set feel theatrical yet timeless, with characters wrapped in bright colors and abstract patterns against surrealist backdrops. When windows frame 2D cityscape paintings, we're transported into a world that exists outside conventional reality.
Kramer's direction shows fearless artistic vision. This isn't a film that explains itself or apologizes for its strangeness - it's pure performance art that functions on intuition and instinct. The choreography by Sigrid Lauren adds another layer of interpretive movement, while composers Bryan Scary and Giulio Carmassi create a score that enhances the film's otherworldly atmosphere.
What makes By Design culturally significant is its exploration of female invisibility and the toxic nature of modern friendship. Camille's desperate desire to be seen and valued speaks to contemporary anxieties about authentic connection in an increasingly materialistic world. The film's critique of consumerism - showing how we seek validation through objects when human connection fails - feels particularly relevant.
Yes, this film will polarize audiences. Some will find it exhausting, others will be bored by its experimental approach. But for those who appreciate cinema that takes genuine risks, By Design offers a sensory experience that prioritizes feeling over understanding. It's like performance art or interpretative dance - either it speaks to you, or it doesn't.
Kramer has created something genuinely unique here, a film that exists in its own bizarre universe while commenting on very real social issues. The 91-minute runtime flies by in a haze of surreal imagery and committed performances. This is filmmaking for the eccentric, made to amuse those who crave something completely different from their cinema experience.