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By Design
Directed by
Amanda Kramer
2025
1h 31m
Drama
,
Science Fiction
,
and more
5.7
71%
Add to Watchlist
A twist on the body swap genre.
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Where to Watch By Design
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Cast of By Design
Juliette Lewis
Camille
Mamoudou Athie
Olivier
Melanie Griffith
Narrator (voice)
Samantha Mathis
Lisa
Robin Tunney
Irene
Alisa Torres
Marta
Udo Kier
Aldo Fabbri
Clifton Collins Jr.
Jacob the Stalker
Betty Buckley
Cynthia
Ruby Cruz
Sheila the Intern
Cristo Montt
Gio
Jessie-Ann Kohlman
Tara
Cricket Arrison
The Photographer
Bridey Elliott
Regina
Michelle Farrah Huang
The Journalist
Greer Cohen
Esther
Miranda Bailey
Diane the Wailing Woman / Producer
Jim Chapa
Keir Gilchrist
Gary
Madison McKinley
Sarah the Stockest
Sophie von Haselberg
Len
Amanda Kramer
Director / Writer / Producer
Sarah Winshall
Producer
Natalie Whalen
Producer
Jacob Agger
Producer
By Design Ratings & Reviews
Kevin Ward
July 1, 2025
By Design hinges on an intriguing premise—Juliette Lewis plays Camille, a woman who swaps bodies with a chair and slowly realizes people seem to prefer her that way. It’s reaching for commentary on objectification and invisibility, but its execution is so muted and deadpan it barely registers. The film uses expressive lighting, interpretive dance, and vintage Gershwin to show Camille’s inner world—but these gestures feel more ornamental than affecting. Lewis, usually a live wire, is stuck in stillness, which suits the concept but leaves the film lifeless. There’s a voice here, and a point worth making. But By Design treats its own allegory with such stiff seriousness that the message ends up echoing its form: inert.
The Hollywood Reporter
Jourdain Searles
The alienating nature of the premise is what makes it fascinating, pushing us to question how we want to be seen and experienced as people in the world.
Rendy Reviews
Rendy Jones
Only Amanda Kramer could make me believe that being inanimate feels more exciting than being alive. It's anything but wooden.
The Verge
Andrew Webster
The movie can drag in moments, particularly because of its lengthy narration, but its strange vision is weirdly charming and eventually pushes towards a surprisingly intense climax.
Inverse
Lyvie Scott
Part experimental theater, part absurd tragicomedy, By Design is an oddball of a film - but it manages to express an untenable aspect of the feminine mystique with a unique blend of gonzo charm.
Film Inquiry
Wilson Kwong
Told with steadfast conviction, the film is inventive and unique, but ultimately lacks cohesion, resulting in a disjointed narrative that's perhaps too abstract for its own good.
Pajiba
Sara Clements
By Design may not hit all the right notes, but it's undeniably a visual and thematic experiment in exploring the female experience in a new way.
The Movie Buff
Hector A. Gonzalez
Kramer does not provide that angst or expressive fury that made her work so entrancing and, somehow, intoxicating. But what she misses in fury, Kramer provides in (necessary) opaqueness, to which it works both to its benefit and against.
The Film Stage
John Fink
Offering a twist on the body-swap genre, Amanda Kramer's Sundance Next entry By Design feels, at first glance, more suited to the stage or gallery than cinema.
Awards Radar
Joey Magidson
By Design is about as bizarre a film as it gets. Make of that what you will.
Loud and Clear Reviews
Roberto Tyler Ortiz
A strangely poignant meditation on self-worth, social performance, and the unsettling realization that, sometimes, people really do prefer objects over other people.
InSession Film
Will Bjarnar
To respond negatively to Kramer's ingenuity as a filmmaker, especially here, is to endure self-inflicted harm.
Jaredmobarak.com
Jared Mobarak
By Design has a lot to say and does so in a dryly comic way that both appeals to audiences with its satirical metaphors and alienates them via its performance art affectations, interpretative dance, and glacial pacing.
FandomWire
Sean Boelman
By Design's aridity prevents it from ever being a particularly pleasant experience, but its intellectualism will keep audiences stimulated and invested in unraveling the fabric of Kramer's unusual construction.
Cinapse
Dan Tabor
By Design is daring and profound in its indictment of how women are objectified and to be honest I am never going to look at a chair the same way again.
RogerEbert.com
Brian Tallerico
There are some sharp ideas in "By Design" and one excellent performance, but it often struggles to tie those ideas together in a coherent way, wearing out its welcome long before it's over.
AV Club
Jacob Oller
A fascinatingly designed and overtly theatrical daydream that wonders whether the world treats a nice chair better than a human woman.
IGN Movies
Katie Rife
A movie whose aesthetic is impeccably judged but whose commentary is frustratingly scattered. Its uncompromising artistry is intriguing, but it's more performance art than camp classic.
IndieWire
Christian Zilko
Visually unmistakable and fearlessly abstract, "By Design" stands out as a key entry in an increasingly essential filmography. It won't be for everyone, but that's by design.
TheWrap
Chase Hutchinson
It's strange in an intentionally stilted fashion. Critically, the cast approaches their parts with the seriousness necessary to pull the cocktail of silliness and sincerity off. It will alienate some, but that's also what makes it work.
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